Cure diarrhea without rehydration

US scientists have tested a compound that is able to treat diarrhea directly, inexpensively and easily, to help reduce the rate of children dying from acute diarrhea. number of developing countries.

Dr. Ferid Murad of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center, USA (who won the 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine) published a work called "The pyridopyrimidine derivative inhibits the total Combined circulation of nucleotide: Applied in the treatment of diarrhea ".

According to the results of this study, pyridopyrimidine derivatives have the ability to effectively prevent the body from becoming dehydrated when suffering from acute diarrhea caused by vibrio cholerae and some strains of Ecoli bacteria.

In preclinical tests, this compound significantly reduced fluid secretion in animal and human intestines without causing any harm to the body. For example, this compound reduces the formation of molecules that transmit information in the intestinal epithelial cells (causing disruption of secretion of salts and fluid in the intestine), thereby preventing or reducing loss. body water.

Dr Murad said the compound could be given as an adult pill and for children.

According to Murad, "In patients with diarrhea, the toxin of bacteria will stimulate the intestinal mucosa to release excessive fluid, so patients often suffer from dehydration and severe electrolytes, which can lead to shock, even death ".

Murad's team emphasized that "a toxin molecule is capable of causing the intestine to secrete millions of water molecules".

So far, treatment of diarrhea is done indirectly by intravenous or oral rehydration, which replaces the body's water, but does not prevent secretion. out liquid and salt in the intestine.

Therefore, according to Dr. Murad, the results of this study are very promising in treating or preventing diarrhea directly.

Stanlay G.Schultz, a professor of medicine at the University of Tax, said that the new drug works to effectively prevent the loss of water and salt in the body, but only produces the lowest side effects. will be considered a "medicine god" to save the lives of millions of people, especially children in developing countries.

Moreover, this new drug will help save billions of dollars that the world has to spend to treat diarrhea.

Research results of Dr. Murad and colleagues were published in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences.

This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Defense.

According to the statistics of the World Health Organization (WHO), about 1.6-2.5 million children die from diarrhea every year.