Octreotide for Cryptosporidiosis

Octreotide, a synthetic substitute for the naturally- occurring hormone somatostatin, is a new designer drug with the
same general structure as peptide T. (Both are artificially created peptides with eight amino acids.) Octreotide would be expected to provide symptomatic relief for severe diarrhea, such as that caused by cryptosporidiosis, even when nothing else worked.
In a case reported earlier this year, physicians found that octreotide was helpful for a patient with AIDS with severe
cryptosporidiosis. Stool volume was reduced from five to ten liters per day to two to three, and the patient could be
discharged from the hospital. The patient did well at home for five months, but then deteriorated and died from other AIDS- related causes.
The octreotide (also called Sandostatin) was obtained as an experimental drug.
For more information, see the report in the February 1988 Drug Intelligence and Clinical Pharmacy. (Katz MD, Erstad BL, and Rose C. Treatment of Severe Cryptosporidium-Related Diarrhea with Octreotide in a Patient with AIDS. Volume 22, pages 134-136.) Also see the editorial and the review article in the same issue.

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