Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a terrible disease. The National Institute of Health describes it as an autoimmune condition where the “immune system mistakenly attacks the lining of the nerves in the brain and spinal cord. . . This leads to muscle weakness, problems with coordination and vision, and other symptoms of the disease.” But it’s a slow process. It can take years–or decades–to deteriorate.
Like most things, this can have positives and negatives, depending on your outlook. It’s good to have more time with friends and family, but watching your body slowly turn against you can be frightening.
However, it also offers more time for intervention–and there may be a new treatment option on the horizon. (1)
MS And The Nerve Coating
As we’ve discussed, MS is an autoimmune disease, a classification for diseases where the body mistakes its own body as an invading threat, sending the immune system to attack. The nerve lining that the immune system is destroying in MS is called myelin. Myelin is what helps the nerves communicate with each other–a vitally important task. (1)
Bexarotene
A drug trial ended in September 2020. Excitingly, it showed that bexarotene, a drug commonly used to fight cancer, could repair those myelin linings. Unfortunately, the side effects of bexarotene are too severe to use it as a treatment right now.
“It’s disappointing that this is not the drug we’ll use, but it’s exciting that repair is achievable,” says the study lead, Professor Alasdair Coles. “It gives us great hope for another trial we hope to start this year.”
The side effects of the drug could lead to such issues as thyroid disease or inflamed pancreas. Because of this, the drug won’t be moving on to further trials. (2)
Hope For Future MS Trials
“Finding treatments to stop MS progression is our number one priority,” says Dr. Emma Gray, from the MS society. “To do that we need ways to protect nerves from damage and repair lost myelin. This new research is a major milestone in our plan to stop MS and we’re incredibly excited.”
Professor Siddharthan Chandran from the University of Edinburgh, was a co-investigator on the study. “We now understand much more about myelin repair and are in a significantly better position to measure remyelination in clinical trials,” Chandran says. “While this work was taking place, further lab research identified new and more tolerable treatments that could repair myelin, and we look forward to these being tested in trials imminently.” (2, 3)
The Next Step
On September 25th, 2020, the MS Society released a statement, which we’ve discussed in part, about the bexarotene trials. Although they won’t go forward with that, they have an exciting new announcement. Promising results from laboratory studies in October 2019 showed the common diabetes drug metformin could repair myelin in rats. “We’re proud to announce we’re funding a new Phase 2 clinical trial to test metformin in combination with clemastine (an antihistamine) [for the treatment of MS].” In October 2019, lab tests showed a potential that metformin, commonly used to treat diabetes, could repair myelin, as it had promising results in rats.” (3)
