New Drug Protects Nerve Cells From Damage In Mice
According to an article in the National MS Society website, researchers have reported that an experimental compound was found to be effective in reducing the damage to nerve fibers and their myelin insulation when administered to mice with a chronic form of EAE, a disease in rats that is similar to progressive MS in humans.Researchers from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston reported their findings in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. The study was also funded in part by a research grant from the National MS Society.
When it comes to the treatment for progressive MS in humans, researchers have so far been successful on only a few known options. With the new study on an experimental compound known as ABS-75, researchers have hopes of finding another promising treatment that may someday help MS sufferers from the debilitating effects of the disease.
ABS-75 is a fullerene derivative that combines the effects of an anti-oxidant with a compound that blocks the activity of the natural chemical glutamate. Glutamate is a nerve transmitter in the body that can cause injury to the nerves if found in excess amounts. ABS-75 has shown that it can protect nerve fibers from further injury in the mice models of stroke. The experimental compound is also known to enter into the brain efficiently.
In mice models with EAE, the mice counterpart of progressive MS, treatment with ABS-75 showed reduced symptom progression as well as a substantial reduction in nerve fiber loss and myelin damage, which serves as the insulation of the spinal cord. Aside form that the mice model of the said study also showed that ABS-75 protected the cells from a certain type of injury caused by high levels of glutamate. The said study also showed that the compound did not seem to affect memory functions unlike other drugs used to block out glutamate activity.
The new study follows a different approach to trying to prevent the damage caused during the progressive stages of MS. More research might still be on the way to determine if this new approach would be effective as a treatment option for humans with multiple sclerosis.
Source: nationalmssociety.org/news/news-detail/index.aspx?nid=198
Pixantrone as Possible MS Treatment
According to an article on the Medical News Today website, a biopharmaceutical company is announcing the study of the Phase I/II drug trial of pixantrone as a possible treatment of aggressive multiple sclerosis.The company Cell Therapeutics, Inc. announced that its investigational drug pixantrone will be undergoing a phase I/II trial that will be initiated by the Fondation Charcot Stichting in Brussels, Belgium. The said multicenter trial will involve enrolling patients with aggressive relapsing remitting (RR) or secondary progressive (SP) multiple sclerosis to study the possible effects of pixantrone on the said debilitating disease.
Pixantrone is an immunosuppressant drug that has been studied for treating non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma as well as various other hematologic malignancies, slid tumors and immunological disorders. The said drug compound is being developed to improve the activity and safety in treating various cancers that are effectively treated by the anthracycline family of anti-cancer agents.
This family of compounds have been showing positive effects in clinically treating a number of tumor types such as lymphoma, leukemia and breast cancer. Chemotherapy regimens using anthracycline compounds been very effective as the first line treatment for such cancers.
But the use of compounds such as anthracycline anti-cancer agents has been known to cause cumulative heart damage that may put a limit on lifetime dosages. The drug pixantrone is being studied to reduce the potential for heat damage without losing its positive effect as an anti-cancer agent and, possibly as a potential treatment for multiple sclerosis.
A related compound to pixantrone, which is Mitoxantrone has already been approved by the US FDA for the reduction of neurological disability in patients suffering from SP multiple sclerosis. But mitoxantrone poses a risk in terms of its high cardiac toxicity which can impose some limitations for the selection of MS patients suitable for treatment. Pixantrone is being studied to lower that potential for cardiac toxicity in patients but have similar and even more effective immune regulation activity than mitoxantrone.
The objective of the said study is to determine how effective pixantrone would be as an immunosuppressive agent based on its ability to decrease lymphocyte count and its effectiveness as an MS treatment based on gadolinium enhanced magnetic resonance imaging.
Retuximab Reduces Disease Activity In Multiple Sclerosis
According to a bulletin posted on the National MS Society website, researchers have reported that a course of the intravenous drug rituximab help reduce disease activity and relapses in people with relapsing-remitting MS for about 48 weeks.
Rituximab is used initially to treat certain types of cancers. This type of medication is referred to as a monoclonal antibody. It works by attaching itself to certain blood cells fro the immune system such as B cells and then killing them. It can also be used to treat moderate to severe forms of rheumatoid arthritis along with another drug called methotrexate.
Researchers from university of California in San Francisco have reported the results of the phase 2 trial which was conducted at 32 centers in the US as well as Canada. Two infusions of the drug rituximab were given two weeks apart to 69 people while an inactive placebo was administered to an additional 35 participants in the clinical trial. The primary goal of the said study was to determine the effects of rituximab in enhancing the brain lesions. Other objectives include evaluating the proportion of patients who might experience relapses.
The study showed that 91 percent of the patients taking rituximab experience a reduction of active lesions after 24 weeks. The study also showed that there were 58 percent fewer patients in the treatment group who went through relapses. The researchers believe that the effect of rituximab on depleting B cells in the immune system may be the reason behind the positive effects of the drug on the clinical study. B cells have been known to have a role in the attack of the immune system on brain and spinal cord tissues in people with multiple sclerosis.
Although the study has been in its preliminary stages and may require larger and long term studies in the future, the findings have shown the potential of looking for new therapeutic strategies for treating multiple sclerosis.
Stanford Researchers Identify Therapy Targets for MS Treatment
A team of researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine have recently identified possible therapy targets that would someday lead to a personalized approach of treating multiple sclerosis patients. The team of researchers that included Dr. Lawrence Steinman, a professor of neurology and neurological sciences also worked with researchers from the University Of Connecticut Health Center. Together, the team was able to catalog all brain tissue proteins that they found to exhibit distinct characteristics associated to the three discrete stages of multiple sclerosis.Multiple sclerosis is a debilitating disease that affects the central nervous system. It usually a condition wherein the immune system attacks the myelin sheath that acts as an insulating cover to protect nerve cells. As the myelin sheath degenerates, the insulation slowly decreases, causing the nerve cells to misfire. This results further to a number of neurological disorders that has affected over 2.5 million people all over the world.
In the said study, the team of researchers was able to encounter a number of unexpected brain tissue proteins that was involved in the progression of multiple sclerosis. The team also tested drugs that were able to block two of the identified proteins in a mouse model of the disease. It resulted in a considerable improvement in the condition of the mice.
According to Dr. Steinman, “Knowing what proteins are most important at a discrete stage of the multiple sclerosis process is the first step toward being able to ‘personalize’ treatment.” The findings can then be someday applied to human patients with identifying the protein targets and then providing personalized treatments for different multiple sclerosis patients exhibiting the disease at its different discrete stages.
