Fexinidazole is a medication used to treat African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense. It is effective against both first and second stage disease. Some evidence also supports its use in Chagas disease. It is taken by mouth.Common side effects include nausea, vomiting, headache, and trouble sleeping. Other side effects may include QT prolongation, psychosis, and low white blood cells. It is unclear if use during pregnancy or breast feeding is safe. Fexinidazole is in the antiparasitic and the nitroimidazole family of medications. It is believed to work by turning on certain enzymes within the parasites that result in their death.Fexinidazole was first described in 1978. It was given a positive opinion by the European Medicines Agency in 2018. It is on the World Health Organizations List of Essential Medicines. Development for sleeping sickness was funded by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative in collaboration with Sanofi. Fexinidazole was approved for medical use in the United States in July 2021. Medical use
Sleeping sickness
A trial in Africa found fexinidazole to be 91% effective at treating sleeping sickness. Though less effective than nifurtimox with eflornithine in severe disease, fexinidazole has the benefit that it can be taken by mouth.Fexinidazole is the first drug candidate for the treatment of advanced-stage sleeping sickness in thirty years. Other
It has activity against Trypanosoma cruzi, Tritrichomonas foetus, Trichomonas vaginalis, Entamoeba histolytica, and Trypanosoma brucei. It has not been found to be useful for visceral leishmaniasis. Mechanism of action
The biologically relevant active metabolites in vivo are the sulfoxide and sulfone.
Some scientists speculate that some forms of essential myoclonus may be a type of epilepsy with no known cause. Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) usually consists of jerking and muscle twitches of the upper extremities. This may include the arms, shoulders, elbows, and very rarely, the legs. JME is among the most common types of epilepsy and can affect one of every 14 people with the disease. These seizures typically occur shortly after waking up. Onset for JME can be seen around puberty for most patients. Administration of medications that also treat multiple seizure types is usually the most effective form of treatment. Lennox-Gastaut syndrome  (LGS), or childhood epileptic encephalopathy, is a rare epileptic disorder accounting for 1–4% of childhood epilepsies. The syndrome has much more severe symptoms ranging from multiple seizures daily, learning disabilities, abnormal findings in electroencephalogram (EEG). Earlier age of seizure onset is correlated with higher risk of cognitive impairment. Progressive myoclonus epilepsy (PME) is a group of diseases characterized by myoclonus, epileptic seizures, tonic-clonic seizures, and other serious symptoms such as trouble walking or speaking. These rare disorders often get worse over time and can be fatal. Studies have identified at least three forms of PME. Lafora disease is inherited as an autosomal recessive disorder, meaning that the disease occurs only when a child inherits two copies of a defective gene, one from each parent. Lafora disease is characterized by myoclonus, epileptic seizures, and dementia (progressive loss of memory and other intellectual functions).