Nitric oxide for the adjunctive treatment of severe malaria: hypothesis and rationale.
Document Type
Article
Department
Paediatrics and Child Health (East Africa)
Abstract
We hypothesize that supplemental inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) will improve outcomes in children with severe malaria receiving standard antimalarial therapy. The rationale for the hypothesized efficacy of iNO rests on: (1) biological plausibility, based on known actions of NO in modulating endothelial activation; (2) pre-clinical efficacy data from animal models of experimental cerebral malaria; and (3) a human trial of the NO precursor l-arginine, which improved endothelial function in adults with severe malaria. iNO is an attractive new candidate for the adjunctive treatment of severe malaria, given its proven therapeutic efficacy in animal studies, track record of safety in clinical practice and numerous clinical trials, inexpensive manufacturing costs, and ease of administration in settings with limited healthcare infrastructure. We plan to test this hypothesis in a randomized controlled trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01255215).
Publication (Name of Journal)
Medical hypotheses
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2011.06.003
Recommended Citation
Hawkes, M.,
Opoka, R.,
Namasopo, S.,
Miller, C.,
Conroy, A. L.,
Serghides, L.,
Kim, H.,
Thampi, N.,
Liles, W. C.,
John, C. C.
(2011). Nitric oxide for the adjunctive treatment of severe malaria: hypothesis and rationale.. Medical hypotheses, 77(3), 437-444.
Available at:
https://ecommons.aku.edu/eastafrica_fhs_mc_paediatr_child_health/402
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Comments
This work was published before the author joined Aga Khan University.