Drug could give relief for persistent cough

TAMPA (FOX 13) - Eight years ago, a side effect of Joan Meier's blood pressure pills left her with a hacking cough. It was so bad, she found it hard for her to leave her home. 

"The cough was 24-7, night and day. Each coughing episode would leave me exhausted, [it] interrupted my sleep," Joan, a retired registered nurse explained.

Six years, four doctors and a variety of treatments didn't help.

"It was uncontrollable, I could not manage the cough, no cough drop. There was nothing that helped and it was one of those coughs that was deep and intense and sounds like someone is very ill," she remembered. 

That's when she found allergist Dr. Mandel Sher. He said the last time the Food and Drug Administration approved an anti-tussive drug was in 1958.

"Cough is the unmet need for therapy. We do not have an optimal cough drug. They cause a significant amount of side effects... Then we have medications that may not have a lot of side effects, but they don't work so well," he explained. 

He says a cough can come from acid reflux, drippy sinuses, even asthma. Now, researchers are honing in on a different cause: the tiny nerves lining the respiratory track. The nerves were discovered decades ago, and were largely ignored. 

"This is actually picking up a rock and seeing something that has been sitting there and starting to investigate," Dr. Sher said.

That investigation led them to an experimental drug called AF-219. It works by blocking tiny receptors - or binding sites - for type c afferent fibers. 

The twitchy nerves trigger the tickles in our throats, and cause other problems, too.

"Many of the patients who are hard wired or hot-wired for these receptors have issues of headaches, pain issues, or itching," he says.

Joan took AF-219 for 12 weeks earlier this year as part of the clinical trial and admits there was a side effect.  

"For m,e it was an absolute loss of taste, it's really strange," Joan said, adding her taste returned once she stopped the experimental drug and she noticed another benefit. "What Dr. Sher's treatment, plus the clinical trial medicine, has given me is the ability to have cough. That's manageable."  

Manageable means she is able to spend more time out with family - and side effects or not, she said she would try the drug again.

"Whether my apple pie tastes the same or not, when I compare that with the ability to be in... my church service or at Disney, I'd rather take the medication," she smiled.

For more information, visit:

Center for Cough
http://centerforcough.com/

AF-219 Clinical Trial Recruiting
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02612610

AF-219 Information
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)61255-1/abstract