NEW YORK, May 06 (Reuters Health) -- Pleconaril is the first drug to safely and effectively reduce the severity and duration of viral meningitis symptoms in children, researchers conclude.
"This is the first large study done on this drug, and it looks promising as the first treatment for viral meningitis," said study lead author Dr. Mark H. Sawyer of the University of California, San Diego. The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies, held in San Francisco this week.
Meningitis involves an inflammation of spinal cord and the meninges, membranes that protect the brain. Symptoms include fever, headache, vomiting, and neck stiffness.
Unlike bacterial meningitis, which tends to be more serious, viral meningitis is not usually life threatening, but can require a prolonged hospital stay. Until now there has been no effective drug therapy for use against meningitis caused by a virus.
In the international study, 220 children, ages 5 to 13, with viral meningitis -- most of them admitted to the hospital -- received either daily doses of pleconaril or (an inactive) placebo for 7 days. Eighty-two percent of the cases were believed to have been triggered by infection with a member of the enterovirus family of viruses -- the leading cause of viral meningitis.
In an interview with Reuters Health, Sawyer said that symptom improvement -- including shortening of duration of headache -- occurred within 24 hours in children receiving pleconaril. No significant side effects were seen with pleconaril treatment, he said.
The researchers believe that the drug works to reduce enterovirus replication by blocking its ability to attach to human cells.
Sawyer believes that the drug may also be effective in adults with viral meningitis, and against other diseases caused by enteroviruses, such as myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) and certain enteroviral illnesses that can be fatal in newborns.
The study was funded by Viropharma, Inc. of Exton, Pennsylvania, the developers of pleconaril. It included children treated at hospitals in California, Nebraska, Panama, and Chile.
