Axonal Neuropathy as a Rare Side Effect of Sulfasalazine

Abstract

Sulphasalazine, one of the 5-aminosalicylates, is widely used for the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases and arthritis. Beside its classic adverse effects like blood dyscrasias and hepatic failure, peripheral neuropathy has been reported as a rare adverse drug reaction to sulphasalazine. The mechanism of this neurotoxicity is unknown tell nowaday. We report a case of neurotoxicity that occurs after prolonged use of sulphasalazine. Previously, reported cases of neurotoxicity have not shown improvement of electric signs in nerve conduction study after stopping treatment.

Peripheralized sepiapterin reductase inhibition as a safe analgesic therapy

“…However, to date, there have been no clinical trials to study the effects of SSZ on human neuropathic pain patients. This may be due to the fact that SSZ is metabolized into different bioactive components of which little is known regarding their direct targets, and that SSZ use has been linked to rare side effects including male sterility (Toovey et al, 1981;Fukushima et al, 2005) and axonal neuropathy (Essouiri et al, 2016), or due to drug repurposing/patent issues, as well as its low cell permeability and potency as a SPR/BH4 blocker (Haruki et al, 2013;Latremoliere et al, 2015). It therefore does not represent the most effective, safe way to specifically target SPR.…”