From: Tom Cowper (tcowper@capital.net)
Date: Tue Jun 11 2002 - 21:01:16 MDT
I want to thank everyone who responded to my request for information on MS
research. I'm sure it will be helpful to my friend and I really appreciate
your help and willingness to share. What a great resource and a wonderful
group of highly intelligent people.
I only received one off-list response, from Jeff Davis, and as requested
I've pasted it below with his permission. Thanks again.
Tom
===========================
Jeff Davis wrote:
My mother had MS, and now one of my cousins has it.
So I have always kept an eye out for recent
developments. Below, after my comment, are several of
my most recent finds.
Fear is a terrible thing, often worse than the source
of the fear. If you're facing the unknown, and the
horror stories, MS can be way more frightening than
actually debilitating. My mother walked with a limp,
big deal. Way later she ended up in a wheelchair.
Not long after, cancer, the real scourge of our
family, killed her. And that was 25 years ago. For
the 27 years before that whe was only slightly
inconvenienced.
Technology is moving very fast now. The end is near
for MS.
--------------------------------------
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-04/dlnl-llp041802.php
Common cholesterol drug prevents, reverses MS symptoms
in mice
Lipitor T (atorvastatin), the most frequently used
cholesterol lowering agent in the world, also has the
ability to influence the immune system and proved
effective in reversing paralysis in a mouse model of
multiple sclerosis. Dr. Sawsan Youssef, a postdoctoral
fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Lawrence Steinman,
Stanford University, reported the study on April 23 at
the Experimental Biology 2002 meeting in New Orleans.
Multiple sclerosis is caused by the immune system
attacking the body's own central nervous system,
breaking down the myelin that sheathes and protects
CNS nerves, impairing the body's ability to move
normally, and eventually causing paralysis. The T
lymphocytes of the mice with which the research team
worked are sensitized to brain antigens so that they
produce an over-abundance of cytokines,
pro-inflammatory chemicals that inflame the CNS,
causing demylination of nerve sheaths through the same
mechanism and in the same manner as happens in human
multiple sclerosis. As in humans with MS, this mouse
condition (called experimental autoimmune
encephalomyelitis or EAE) can occur in either an acute
or relapsing form. The researchers found that oral
treatment with lipitor could prevent both the acute
and relapsing form of the multiple sclerosis-like
disease in the mice, and could also reverse symptoms
in mice with the ongoing chronic relapsing form of the
disease. Compared with control mice, the mice treated
with lipitor had much less CNS inflammation. A close
comparison of the lymphocytes of lipitor-treated and
control-treated mice showed that lipitor prevented the
induction of the pro-inflammatory cytokines and
induced secretion of anti-inflammatory cytokines.
Dr. Youssef says that the mechanism by which lipitor
affected the immune system suggests that it and other
statin medications may have implications for the
treatment of multiple sclerosis and other inflammatory
autoimmune diseases including insulin-dependent
diabetes mellitus and rheumatoid arthritis.
Dr. Youssef and Dr. Steinman are working closely on
this study with Dr. Scott Zamvil, University of
California at San Francisco. Other members of the
research team for this paper are Dr. Pedro Ruiz,
Stanford, and Dr. Olaf Stuve, UCLA.
--------------------------------
Initial chemotherapy treatment reduces relapses in MS
patients
DENVER, CO - Mitoxantrone, a chemical routinely used
to fight breast cancer, leukemia and malignant
lymphoma, has found a new disease to battle: Multiple
Sclerosis. Used in an initial intensive course of
chemotherapy (induction therapy), mitoxantrone
dramatically decreases disease activity in MS patients
for at least four years, according to a study
presented at the Annual Meeting of the American
Academy of Neurology.
Induction therapy, frequently used against cancers, is
designed to wipe out abnormal cells and allow for the
regrowth of normal cells. Mitoxantrone for the
treatment of MS has recently been approved by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration. It has been used to
treat MS in France for more than a decade. Researchers
from CHU Pontchaillou of Rennes, France, have
demonstrated that mitoxantrone induction therapy for
relapsing-remitting MS patients has produced dramatic
results in disease activity.
Over the past ten years, 100 worsening
relapsing-remitting MS patients were given initial
mitoxantrone induction therapy for six months, with
mitoxantrone combined with methylprednisolone
administered intravenously on a monthly schedule. The
annual relapse rate decreased significantly from 3.20
during the 12 months preceding mitoxantrone onset to
0.30 during the first year following induction onset,
corresponding to a reduction of nearly 90 percent that
was maintained for more than five years. The
percentage of relapse-free patients was 76 percent at
one year of follow-up, and was maintained at 64
percent, 45 percent, and 43 percent at years two,
three and four, respectively, with a median time to
the first relapse of 2.8 years.
"The clinical benefit and reduction of disease
activity supports our belief that mitoxantrone, as
administered in this study, may be an effective
induction treatment before initiating other long-term
disease modifying therapies for worsening
relapsing-remitting MS patients," commented study
author Emmanuelle Le Page, MD.
###
The American Academy of Neurology, an association of
18,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is
dedicated to improving patient care through education
and research.
For more information about the American Academy of
Neurology, visit its web site at http://www.aan.com.
EDITORS NOTE: Dr. Le Page will present the research at
the American Academy of Neurology's 54th Annual
Meeting in Denver, Colo., during a poster presentation
on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 at 7:30 a.m. in Exhibit
Hall C of the Colorado Convention Center. He will be
available to answer media questions from 3:00 p.m. -
4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17th in the AAN Media
Room, Lobby C, Room 208 of the Colorado Convention
Center.
For more information contact:
Kathy Stone, 651-695-2763, kstone@aan.com
April 13-20, 303-228-8450
Cheryl Alementi, 651-695-2737, calementi@aan.com
---------------------------------------
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-02/jhmi-pft020402.php
Protein found that turns off systemic inflammation in
mice
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