Treatment of Wilson's disease with zinc. I. Oral zinc therapy regimens

Abstract

The standard therapy for preventing copper accumulation in Wilson's disease, D-penicillamine, has been a life-saving drug, but it has many side effects and some patients are completely intolerant. We have been using oral zinc as another approach to the therapy for Wilson's disease, with copper balance studies as the key initial assessment of the adequacy of a given dose or regimen of zinc therapy. We earlier reported that an intensive regimen of zinc (zinc taken every 4 hr) was effective in controlling copper balance. We have now shown with balance studies that a simplified zinc therapy regimen of 50 mg zinc taken 3 times per day is effective in controlling copper balance. Preliminary work presented here with other simplified regimens also indicate their effectiveness. These studies increase the data base, in terms of copper balance, for zinc therapy of Wilson's disease, and expand the dose range and regimens of zinc which have been shown to control copper balance.

Treatment of Wilson's disease with zinc. XVII: Treatment during pregnancy

“…' The diagnosis of Wilson' s disease was established by previously published methods. [12][13][14][15][16] Table 1 provides basic data on the 19 women who were involved in the 26 live birth pregnancies. Two of the women were Hispanic and accounted for 4 pregnancies.…”

“…Urine, plasma, and liver copper and zinc concentrations were measured by previously published methods. [12][13][14][15][16] The protocol and consent procedures used in this study were approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Michigan. Each patient in this study was fully informed about the project and gave written consent.…”

“…11 In January, 1997 the Food and Drug Administration approved zinc for the maintenance therapy of Wilson' s disease, based on our work in developing this therapy. 1,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] Schouwink 29 and Hoogenraad et al [30][31][32] have also used zinc to treat Wilson' s disease. Because zinc is essentially nontoxic, and the other two agents have toxic side-effects, in our opinion zinc is now the preferred maintenance therapy for Wilson' s disease.…”

Formulation and Investigation of Eroding Hydrophilic Matrix Systems

“…Zinc has shown clinical efficacy at doses of 50 mg three times daily in the reduction of copper absorption and remove of stored copper [121] and the stimulation of metallothionein synthesis [122][123][124]. The elimination half-life of zinc in healthy subjects is in the range 0.9-1.2 hours [125], which necessitates several applications a day.…”

“…Since the sign of this factor is negative, increase of dosing speed caused a decrease in particle size. 4 17.31 b 12 1.56 b 13 10.06 b 14 -30.81 b 23 -84.31 b 24 19.06 b 34 -4.94 b 123 7.56 b 124 -12.81 b 134 19.19 b 234 -5.69 * *s si ig gn ni if fi ic ca an nt t…”