The therapy includes injections of the drug interferon, which stimulates the immune system and causes the bulk of the difficult side effects, and two antiviral drugs takenorally.
Los Angeles County Coroner's officials said Monday that the son of Clippers owner Donald Sterling died from a pulmonary embolism after injecting narcotic medication meant to be takenorally.
The dose they employed - up to four grams per kilo of bodyweight - was far greater than any that could be achieved using diet or vitamin pills, as the digestive system does not absorb more than a fixed amount takenorally.
But because CGRP has a complex receptor the slot where the molecule must bind in order to initiate actions in the body it took chemists 15 years to figure out how to block the effects of CGRP, and even longer to develop a compound that could be takenorally, says Dr. Goadsby.