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Colchicine: an old wine in a new bottle?
Francois Roubille1, Ekaterini Kritikou, David Busseuil
1Montreal Heart Institute, Universite de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. francois.roubille@gmail.com
Abstract:
Although colchicine, a natural product, is one of the oldest drugs still currently available, its possible functions seem to be surprisingly not well-known. Beyond its present medicinal use (gout, familial Mediterranean fever, Behcet's disease, chondrocalcinosis and other crystal arthritis), numerous other conditions have been recently proposed for the use of this drug, including pericardial diseases. However, colchicine appears as a double-edged sword, with underestimated toxicity and frequent side effects. In this review, we present the main pharmacologic features of this drug, with an emphasis on toxicity and highlight its possible applications in the cardiovascular field.
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