{"id":5059,"date":"2015-07-07T06:40:49","date_gmt":"2015-07-07T06:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=5059"},"modified":"2015-07-07T06:42:30","modified_gmt":"2015-07-07T06:42:30","slug":"new-drug-helps-improve-sunshine-tolerance-for-patients-with-rare-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/new-drug-helps-improve-sunshine-tolerance-for-patients-with-rare-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"New Drug Helps Improve Sunshine Tolerance for Patients with Rare Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"shutterstock_pills_13\"<\/a>A new study published\u00a0in the New England Journal of Medicine analyzed the effects a drug called afalemonotide, a skin-darkening agent that supports melatonin growth, has on the quality of life for someone with a rare disorder known as erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP).<\/span><\/p>\n

EPP is an inherited metabolic disorder in which a deficiency of the enzyme ferrochelatase (FECH) causes excess amounts of protoporphyrin to accumulate in the bone marrow, blood plasma and red blood cells. Exposure to direct sunlight induces a severe burning skin sensation. Redness and swelling can become byproducts of the exposure.<\/span><\/p>\n

An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 people suffer from this condition worldwide with it typically appearing in early childhood, reports Reuters<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The researchers conducted two clinical trials: one was a six-month test in the U.S. with 94 patients and the other was a nine-month test in Europe with 74 patients. Afalemonotide is delivered\u00a0as a dissolvable grain-sized implant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Results from the U.S. examination revealed afalemonotide \u201cincreased the amount of pain-free time following midday sun exposure by 69.4 hours, compared to 40.8 hours with placebo,\u201d according to Reuters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Europe\u2019s test group saw similar results. Participants taking the drug experienced an additional six hours of a pain-free period versus 0.8 hours for those taking the placebo.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Both groups saw a noticeable improvement in quality of life due to the afalemonotide therapy. Patients with EPP taking the drug had less severe reactions to sun exposure, and recovery times were sped-up too. Reuters mentions \u201cthe most common adverse events \u2013 all of mild to moderate severity \u2013 were nausea, headache, nose and throat irritation and back pain.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Afalemonotide, which is made by Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals, has been approved in Europe, but does not have marketing authorization yet. The drug is currently awaiting approval in the U.S.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source: dddmag.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new study published\u00a0in the New England Journal of Medicine analyzed the effects a drug called afalemonotide, a skin-darkening agent that supports melatonin growth, has on the quality of life for someone with a rare disorder known as erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP). EPP is an inherited metabolic disorder in which a deficiency of the enzyme ferrochelatase […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medicine","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shutterstock_pills_13.jpg",500,331,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shutterstock_pills_13-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shutterstock_pills_13-300x198.jpg",300,198,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shutterstock_pills_13.jpg",500,331,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shutterstock_pills_13.jpg",500,331,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shutterstock_pills_13.jpg",500,331,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shutterstock_pills_13.jpg",500,331,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shutterstock_pills_13.jpg",500,331,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shutterstock_pills_13.jpg",500,331,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shutterstock_pills_13.jpg",500,331,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shutterstock_pills_13.jpg",500,331,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shutterstock_pills_13.jpg",500,331,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shutterstock_pills_13.jpg",500,331,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shutterstock_pills_13.jpg",95,63,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shutterstock_pills_13.jpg",500,331,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shutterstock_pills_13.jpg",96,64,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/shutterstock_pills_13.jpg",150,99,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Medicine<\/a> Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}