News Release

New drug class to treat painful periods, brain hemorrhage, psychotic disorders, water retention

Peer-Reviewed Publication

The Lancet_DELETED

A new drug class — the vaptans — has been developed that could be used to treat a wide range of conditions including painful periods, brain haemorrhage, psychotic disorders, and glaucoma among others. The news is reported in a New Drug Class paper in this week’s edition of The Lancet, authored by Professor Guy Decaux, Erasmus University Hospital, Brussels, Belgium, and colleagues.

The vaptans (vasopressin-receptor antagonists) target the vasopressin hormone system. This hormone plays an important part in circulatory and water control within the body, and is thus implicated in a wide variety of conditions. Vaptans can be taken orally or intravenously and work by competing with vasopressin hormone molecules for the same receptor ‘active sites’ on cells – thus blocking the action of vasopressin. As such, they are known as vasopressin ‘antagonists’.

Various subclasses of vaptan have been developed or are in development. Relcovaptan has shown initial positive results in the treatment of painful periods (dysmenorrhoea), Raynaud’s disease (a vascular disorder that affects blood flow to the extremities), and tocolysis (premature labour leading to premature birth).

A second subclass of vaptans (which target a different cell receptor site) includes the drugs mozavaptan, lixivaptan, satavaptan, and tolvaptan. These drugs induce water loss (diuresis) without the loss of mineral salts from the body that accompanies the use of other diuretics. This class of vaptans can be used to treat sodium deficiency (hyponatraemia). Conivaptan is the only vaptan currently approved by the FDA for treatment of hyponatraemia. Drugs in this class are in development to treat a number of conditions, including renal failure related to polycystic kidney disease, diabetic nephropathy, cirrhosis, and depression.

There have also been promising preliminary studies of vaptans for treatment of glaucoma, Menière’s disease (an inner-ear disorder affecting hearing and balance), brain haemorrhage, and small-cell cancer (usually associated with the lung).

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Professor Guy Decaux, Erasmus University Hospital, Brussels, Belgium T) +32 25554960 E) guy.decaux@skynet.be

http://multimedia.thelancet.com/pdf/press/vaptans.pdf


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