A common antimalarial drug could also be used to treat polycystic ovarian syndrome, an endocrine disorder that affects hundreds of millions of people of reproductive age worldwide.. The results suggest artemisinin compounds, which are already known to be effective against malaria, lupus and cancer, could also be used to alleviate symptoms of PCOS.
Despite the prevalence of PCOS, what causes the disorder is not known. Doctors diagnose it based on elevated levels of hormones called androgens, which includes testosterone, and a plethora of small cysts on patients’ ovaries. Treatments tend to target specific symptoms, such as acne, excess hair growth, irregular menstruation or infertility.
The team first tested the idea in rodents, injecting female mice with an androgen called dehydroepiandrosterone to induce PCOS symptoms. If mice were also simultaneously given artemisinin along with the hormone, PCOS-like symptoms such as an interrupted fertility cycle, elevated testosterone in the blood and ovarian cysts never developed. After seeing similar results in rats, the team tested the drug in a small clinical study of people with PCOS.
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