@locoyeti I think you may have found the killer app for informing doctors on retigabine's potential as a treatment. I'm quoting partly just to keep the link. If anybody is going to a neurologist, take that link with you. It clearly indicates the activity of retigabine on the KCNQ channels, including 7.4, which is a big one in the cochlea.
@locoyeti &
@rtwombly ... Well if you can get a doc to read this you should run for Congress...as maybe something would actually get done for a change.
This is a good article (have not read the fine print yet) but nothing new v. what has been posted and referenced numerous times before on the thread. The 'Australian application' source is still the gold standard in my opinion, despite the "things left out" aspects I mentioned.
Not knocking this, just saying that indeed there is tons of stuff out there on the details of KCNQ/Potassium channels...Waaaaay too much for me to deal with even after 18 hours of perusing it over the weekend (from which came my report, etc.).
Probably just thinking out loud here but is there any way that this results could be presented to medical research people so that at least they have some starting point!
I know there is Autiphony happening but if Potiga is already giving some results isn't that worth of further investigation.
@valeri ...Ummmmmm, I'm not so sure about this 'good thought' at present. I can't give you any hard and fast reason but I think it is premature for one. Then there is the other nagging feeling I have that I'm not so sure GSK would be thrilled to know about this "trail" we are doing here. Certainly my local pharmacist was pretty upset about the whole aspect of using it for other than the label requirement (seizures) - which came out as a consequence of having to explain why I wanted larger dose pill so I could cut them to taper....Which then caused another freak out. In the end my doc's office had to lean on them to get a grip, but then I got hit with the "well then you have to buy a full carton" = at prohibitive price...which put the kibosh on the whole thing.
In short. I am sure there are a number of Pharma and research people out there who know what the potential of K channels and tinnitus is...let alone Autifony, as the wealth of gene data, articles, inquiry, etc. on it all is
not small!
Thus the people who really need to know about this (if all goes well) are the people who could grease the wheels for quicker approval, if and when a "real McCoy tinnitus specific" K channel drug is "acceptable"...i.e. ref Phase II then III trials.
And ladies and gentlemen...we come back to Autifony. And I bet they are worried that someone else is working on this too (or they should be!) as for sure this is
big time $$$ market. Tinnitus is not some esoteric back-water "illness" and ruins a lot of people's day let alone the VA's.
At this point I would not mess with the process too much, let's just see how this plays out for a while.
P.S. Scrip in at 'Canada' right now. Just waiting to pay.
Best, Zimichael