Melarsoprol

Melarsoprol

Systematic (IUPAC) name
(2-(4-(4,6-diamino-1,3,5-triazin-2-ylamino)phenyl)- 1,3,2-dithiarsolan-4-yl)methanol
Clinical data
AHFS/Drugs.com	Micromedex Detailed Consumer Information
Pregnancy cat.	?
Legal status	?
Routes	IV
Pharmacokinetic data
Bioavailability	?
Metabolism	?
Half-life	35 hours
Excretion	Renal
Identifiers
CAS number	494-79-1 N
ATC code	P01CD01 QP51AD04
PubChem	CID 10311
ChemSpider	9889 Y
UNII	ZF3786Q2E8 Y
KEGG	D00832 Y
ChEMBL	CHEMBL166 Y
Chemical data
Formula	C12H15AsN6OS2
Mol. mass	398.341 g/mol
SMILES	eMolecules & PubChem
InChI InChI=1S/C12H15AsN6OS2/c14-10-17-11(15)19-12(18-10)16-8-3-1-7(2-4-8)13-21-6-9(5-20)22-13/h1-4,9,20H,5-6H2,(H5,14,15,16,17,18,19) Y Key:JCYZMTMYPZHVBF-UHFFFAOYSA-N Y
N(what is this?)  (verify)

Melarsoprol (INN) is a medicinal drug used in the treatment of human African trypanosomiasis.^[1] It is also sold under the trade names “Mel B” and “Melarsen Oxide-BAL.”

Melarsoprol is also used in the treatment of trypanosomiasis, such as Chagas disease and West African sleeping sickness, the former caused by Trypanosoma cruzi and the latter by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense.

Side effects

Being a toxic organic compound of arsenic, melarsoprol is a highly dangerous treatment which is only administered by injection under the supervision of a physician, as it can produce similar effects as arsenic poisoning.

It is known to cause a range of side effects including convulsions, fever, loss of consciousness, rashes, bloody stools, nausea, and vomiting. It is fatal in and of itself in around 8% of cases.^[2]

Alternatives

Eflornithine is a more modern and far less dangerous treatment for sleeping sickness,^[3] but it is expensive, it is not widely available on the market, and most of its supply comes from donations from its manufacturer. Moreover, eflornithine is effective only for West African sleeping sickness (caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense); it has no effect on East African sleeping sickness (caused by Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense).

References

This antiinfective drug article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · d · e