New uses of an old antibiotic: dapsone prevents neuronal death

Well shit, How f*cking long before this is proven in a clinical trial and written up as a stroke protocol?  I'm guessing 50 years, you can't work too fast in the stroke medical world, no one seems to ever read research. It might be better if you plan to have your stroke in Mexico.
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=146796&CultureCode=en

The hundred years old antibiotic has been recognized as being effective against neuronal death, therefore preventing the patients’ further motor damage or loss of the ability to speak

Dapsone has successfully been used to treat cerebrovascular accidents.

Soluble dapsone will be produced by the pharmaceutical company Psicofarma, sold under the brand name Dapsol, a trademark of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM).

 For Rubén López it just seemed another day at work. The task at hand on the 15th April seemed simple, even if laborious: setting up an impressive billboard in the outer beltway, to the south of Mexico DF. Rubén climbed the post to start his assignment in just a few seconds, with the security and expertise of three years doing his job. When he was reaching the last step, he slipped and free falled from eight meters to the ground.
 Minutes later, he was rushed to a public hospital, unconscious and in critical condition, where x-rays revealed a double fracture of the spine cord, an injury that can result in permanent damage in 90% of patients.
 Fortunately for Rubén, the future did not hold a wheelchair for him, but the antibiotic dapsone, developed in its soluble formulation by Dr. Luis Camilo Ríos Castañeda, professor and researcher of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM).
 “The use of soluble dapsone within the twelve hours following an spinal cord or head injury stops neuronal death, therefore preventing the patients’ further motor damage or loss of the ability to speak”, explains Dr. Ríos Castañeda.
Ten years of research
After ten years of clinical research, the professor resolved that dapsone was not a simple antibiotic, since it acts as neuroprotector preventing neuronal death. Results showed that patients in clinical trials reduced between 70% and 90% of the most severe effects of spine cord injury.
 The Mexican neuroscientific explains in detail the research process that made possible to move soluble dapsone from the laboratory to the operating room in less than a decade: “Instead of searching and synthesizing a new molecule, we searched among the old existing molecules in order to find new uses according to their modes of action”.
 Dapsone is an antibacterial first synthesized in 1908, but it started to be used in dermatology in 1940 –in both cream o powder- for the treatment of leprosy and inflammatory dermatose.
 The pragmatic approach in medicine research using known free patent drugs followed by Dr. Ríos Castañeda and his team has saved valuable resources for  México. “We don’t need to invest ten million dollars to develop a new molecule, launch it to the market and prove its safety, as pharmatheutical companies do” he declares.
Developing new drugs require research protocols that involve extensive and costly clinical trials. Furthermore, health authorities have to approve the drug for sale if it passes the quality, security and efficiency evaluation. In exchange, the laboratory obtains a twenty years exclusive patent.
 The research strategy of Dr. Castañeda avoided this long and expensive process, which will be reflected in the medicine final price. Currently, a dapsone tablet bottle costs approximately seven dollars, consequently the soluble presentation will have a reasonable price for clinics and hospitals.
Vital minutes
Thanks to its neuroprotective effect, soluble dapsone has also successfully been used by Dr. Castañeda to treat cerebrovascular accidents, commonly referred to as strokes.
 “In the cases of ischemic strokes, where neuronal death is sudden, we have just a few hours to intervene. That is the reason to create an injectable drug to be introduced in the bloodstream as soon as possible: the therapeutic window for cerebrovascular accidents and spinal cord injuries is twelve hours” the professor warns.
 In México, cerebrovascular accidents are responsible for one in ten deaths and are the fifth cause of death, according to the Mexican Health Secretary. “It will be ideal that the emergency protocol forces to administer soluble dapsone to the patients in their way to the hospital”, states the doctor.
Walk again
Back at the operating room, Rubén was lucky to be one of the hundred patients that took soluble dapsone in its experimental form only a few hours after his accident. “We gave him dapsone and three months later he arrived at the institute walking with just a small cane, totally recovered. His recovery was impressive in such a short period of time” the doctor states.
 Dr. Ríos Castañeda expects dapsone to be sold in the Mexican market in 2015. The Mexican Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risk (COFEPRIS) gave permission to the pharmaceutical company Psicofarma to sell soluble dapsone under the brand name Dapsol, a trademark of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM).