Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

This invention discloses a rapid-diffusion injectable formulation, comprising disulfiram or a suitable salt or analog of disulfiram. Unlike slow-release injectable formulations designed to ensure that chronic alcoholics have significant quantities of disulfiram in their blood at all time, the rapid-diffusion injectable formulation disclosed herein is designed to reduce the hypoxic or ischemic damage caused by crisis events such as stroke, heart attack, cardiac arrest, or asphyxiation. A rapid-diffusion injectable formulation can contain disulfiram mixed with water, an organic compound having a plurality of hydroxyl groups (such as pharmaceutically acceptable glycols or polysaccharides; propylene glycol, dextrans, and cyclodextrins are often used for such purposes), and a buffer. When a rapid-release formulation is injected during or immediately after a hypoxic/ischemic crisis or before a patient is subjected to controlled cardiac arrest or bypass during surgery, it can suppress damage by oxygenated free radicals, it can chelate copper and iron which would otherwise promote lipid peroxidation of cell membranes, and it can generate metabolites such as tryptophol that can suppress metabolic activity and demands in neurons and affected tissue.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim