Nicosan

Nathan, S. Tripathi, P. Wu Q.L. Belanger, F.C. Nicosan In Juliani, H.R. Simon, J.E. Ho, C.T. (eds.). African Natural Plant Products Discoveries and Challenges in Quality Control. American Chemical Society Symposium Series 1021. American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C. USA, 2009. (in press). 

Current Global Therapeutic Options for Sickle Cell Disease and the Development of Nicosan... 

In early tests of the drug, it was found to have no toxieity at high doses in rats and it delayed polymerization of hemoglobin S in vitro (24,25). Phase I and Phase II elinieal trials in Nigeria indicated that Nicosan was safe and significantly reduced the number of sickle cell disease associated crises experienced by the patients (10,26). 

Nicosan is an extract of fom plants, all which are used as herbal remedies for other various conditions in parts of Africa. Each species is briefly described below. 

Nicosan is prepared from a cold-water extract of the plants described above. The composition of Nicosan is described in the patent (United States Patent 5800819) as follows ... 

Figure 2. Comparison of morphology ofSS cells after incubation in the absence (A) or presence (B) of a high concentration (0.5 mg/ml) of Nicosan under 4% oxygen for 4 hours. The arrow points out a sickled cell in the control sample (A)...

From a natural products standardization perspective, the HPLC profiles of three different batches of Nicosan are illustrated in Figure 3. Here, the HPLC patterns of the three batches are nearly identical as needed. The presence and/or absence and relative ratio and total content of selected targeted compounds are used in the standardization and quality control process. Some of the compounds present in the extract have been identified and are discussed more below. 

A portion of each of the three different batches used for the HPLC analysis shown in Figure 3 was sent to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Sickle Cell Disease Center at Children s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for determination of the level of antisickling activity. In these experiments, a low concentration (0.05 mg/ml) of Nicosan product was incubated with SS cells for 1 hr instead of the normal 3-4 hrs so that any differences could be seen more clearly. The levels of anti-sickling activity of the 3 different batches were nearly identical (Figure 4). 

Figure 4. Anti-sickling activity of three batches ofNicosan. The SS cells were incubated with 0.05 mg/ml Nicosan at 4% oxygen for 1 hour...

Nicosan is a new multi-component herbal remedy that has been shown both in vitro and in vivo to inhibit sickhng of homozygous HbS cells. It has been clinically tested in sickle cell patients in Nigeria and was found to reduce the... 

---