A drug currently undergoing phase III clinical trials for certain types of cancer may have potential benefit for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS), report researchers from The Rockefeller University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM), British Biotechnology Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and Harvard Medical School. These findings, published in the July Annals of Neurology, offer a new avenue for treatment of this disease.
"We have shown that a class of drugs called matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors (MMPIs) are effective in treating a mouse model of multiple sclerosis," says Wolfgang Liedtke, M.D., lead author of the paper. "MMPIs have been shown to be safe for people in human trials as a cancer therapy, and we think that people with MS may benefit." Leidtke, now a research associate at Rockefeller, did the work in the laboratory of senior author and MS pioneer Cedric S. Raine, Ph.D., D.Sc., F.R.C.Path., a professor of neurology, neuroscience and pathology at AECOM.
Multiple sclerosis is an unpredictable disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that affects an estimated 250,000 to 350,000 people in the United States, with an annual estimated cost of more than $2.5 billion. Severity of the disease varies, however, in severely affected cases, MS can render a person unable to see, speak or walk. MS most often strikes between the ages of 20 and 40 and more often in women than in men.
In people with MS, the body's immune system launches an attack against its own tissues, specifically a fatty substance called myelin that surrounds nerve fibers in the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves, where it acts as an insulator. Myelin allows for the speedy conduction of nerve impulses that convey information in the CNS. When myelin is damaged, the nerve fibers are no longer insulated and nerve impulses cannot be conducted efficiently. The location and extent of damaged myelin in the CNS determines the type, severity and duration of symptoms in MS.
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Contact: Joseph Bonner
runews@rockvax.rockefeller.edu
212-327-7900
Rockefeller University
3-Jul-1998