"Thanos Tzounopoulos, Ph.D., Endowed Chair in Auditory Physiology, associate professor of otolaryngology and member of the Auditory Research Group, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine" and Peter Wipf, Ph.D.,
Sorry but these two Scientist together know a lot more than you about how drugs work and if they say it will work much better with less sides - then I see no reasons to not believe them.
Well, sure, Bobby
But neither of these professors has, you know, actually said that it will work better with fewer side effects. You seem to be basing all that off of this:
"When the researchers compared the three drugs head-to-head in lab tests, they found RL-81 was 15 times more potent than retigabine and three times more potent than SF0034. Because of its specificity, RL-81 also should have fewer side effects."
This is 'potency' measured by by receptor affinity -- which is a useful thing to do, but definitely does
not provide evidence that the drug will work as well/better as the existing drug. I can give you a dozen examples of research molecules that appear, on paper and in vitro, to be more potent or selective, which did not pan out in vivo. And, note the "should" in that quote. Again, there are plenty of examples of drugs which were developed to have a lesser side effect profile, which ended up having different or more problematic side effects.
Its okay to be questioning everything and doubting and being so negative and such ..but I would take the word of a few Scientists with Phd and actual experience over yours in this matter.
I don't disagree, and I'd therefore encourage you to email these professors and say "I am considering having a lab synthesize RL81 for me because I think it will work better on my tinnitus with less side effects than RTG, do you agree and think that's a wise thing to do?"
If they tell you that you should go for it, I'll be happy to independently finance your RL81 experience
We can also use a primate from day 1 if we want - we don't need approval !..just money for the animal and the first batch.
Again, you do not have the expertise, knowledge or experience required to perform useful studies with primates or rats. Do you know what the behavioral correlates of tinnitus are in primates or rats? Have you spent years learning proper protocols for animal studies? Personally, I have at least tangentially worked in an animal research lab at a major university hospital for a period of time (not in any capacity as an animal researcher, mind you) - I've also been a human lab rat in several studies with originated with animal data, and so worked closely with such researchers over a period of months. I would never pretend to have the smallest shred of an idea of how to approach the design and implementation of an animal study.
The mere fact that you think you could do this with "a couple of monkeys" is very telling. A sample size of two in a tinnitus study tells you almost nothing; you cannot even reliably induce tinnitus in an animal population which is that small.
I'm sorry to have become a bit vitriolic here, but what you are proposing w/r/t your own body is reckless and ill-advised, and what you are proposing to do with animals is so incredibly unethical and obtuse that I have more than a small suspicion you are trolling.