New MS Treatment Tested on Mice

As you might imagine, we're more than a little jaded around here on the subject of treatment breakthroughs. Still, this one sounded quite promising:

The group then induced an MS-type illness called experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis in 24 mice. On the occasion of their first relapse half were given a daily dose of a synthetic version of the kynurenine for 49 days.

“All the mice went into remission, but the mice on the tablets stayed healthy for much longer," says Platten. "The relapses were far less severe and they did not have a return of the paralysis. The drug actually suppressed the disease and slowed its progression.”

The mice on the tablets also had “re-programmed” T-cell function, he adds: “Instead of being pro-inflammatory, the T-cells became anti-inflammatory, helping to heal the myelin sheath and suppressing paralysis.”

There may be something out of this in the not too distant future, too:

Another advantage kynurenine has over other candidate treatments is that it is has already proved its safety. Not only is it a derivative of an amino acid that occurs naturally in the human body, but it has passed phase I clinical trials in Japan as a potential treatment for allergy sufferers.

“I expect we will be able to proceed directly to phase II clinical trials in patients in 2006 and start helping people with MS,” Steinman says.

We'll see.