Sulbutiamine

Sulbutiamine (brand name: Arcalion) is a synthetic derivative of thiamine (vitamin B1). In France, it is used to treat symptoms of weakness or fatigue. It is also sold as a dietary supplement. Sulbutiamine was discovered in Japan as part of an effort to develop useful thiamine derivatives. Sulbutiamine (brand name: Arcalion) is a synthetic derivative of thiamine (vitamin B1). In France, it is used to treat symptoms of weakness or fatigue. It is also sold as a dietary supplement. Sulbutiamine was discovered in Japan as part of an effort to develop useful thiamine derivatives. Sulbutiamine is used to treat asthenia (symptoms of fatigue or weakness) in France. It is not clear if it is effective. Adverse effects in clinical trials have included diarrhea, bladder infections, bronchitis, arthritic pain, back pain, asthma, abdominal pain, insomnia, constipation, gastroenteritis, diffuse pain, sinusitis, headache, kidney pain, vertigo, and sore throat. Efforts to develop thiamine derivatives with better bioavaiability than thiamine were conducted in the 1950s, mainly in Japan. These efforts led to the discovery of allicin (diallyl thiosulfinate) in garlic, which became a model for medicinal chemistry efforts to create other thiamine disulfides. The results included sulbutiamine, fursultiamine (thiamine tetrahydrofurfuryl disulfide) and benfothiamine. These compounds are hydrophobic, easily pass from the intestines to the bloodstream, and are reduced to thiamine by cysteine or glutathione.:302 It was first marketed in France by Servier in 1973 under the brand name Arcalion. The drug registration went through a validation procedure in France in the 1980s, which found that the use for treatment of fatigue was not supported by data. The French government does not pay for prescriptions of sulbutiamine. Sulbutiamine is sold as a dietary supplement; it appears that endurance athletes may use it to try to enhance their performance. It is also used as a nootropic dietary supplement; in 2014 the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency seized a shipment of nootropics worth around £200,000 that included sulbutiamine. Because thiamine deficiency causes problems with memory and other cognitive functions, thiamine and analogs like sulbutiamine have been studied in clinical trials in the 1980s and 1990s for age-associated cognitive decline.