Pass them drugs over here

[Kahnee]

Reason to be mildly optimistic...

 

Combining a common treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) with an antibiotic could slow down progression of the disease, experts said today.

A small study found that patients taking a type of beta interferon drug had fewer "brain lesions" when they also took antibiotics.

Patients suffering relapsing-remitting MS were studied for the research.

This MS is characterised by episodes where patients experience symptoms like muscle weakness and spasms followed by periods of "remission" when they are symptom-free.

Many patients with relapsing-remitting MS take interferon - medicines that boosts the immune system and fights viruses.

However, they may still experience relapses and can continue to develop new areas of damaged brain tissue (lesions) visible on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.

For the research, patients took 100mg daily of the antibiotic doxycycline in addition to their interferon therapy.

They underwent monthly neurological examinations, MRI scans to detect brain lesions and blood tests to ensure the process was safe.

After four months, the combination treatment resulted in fewer lesions visible on MRI scans.

A total of 60% of patients had more than a quarter reduction in the number of lesions compared with before the study.

They also scored better than average on a scale designed to assess disability levels.

The authors said that antibiotics in the tetracycline family, which includes doxycycline, may be effective against MS and other inflammatory diseases by stopping enzymes that destroy cells in the nervous system.

This could protect the brain and increasing the immune system response.

Writing in the journal Archives of Neurology, the experts said there was "growing interest in combination therapy" to reduce MS symptoms and slow down its progression.

Alireza Minagar, from the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Centre, Shreveport, and his colleagues studied 15 patients for the trial.

They said: "Overall, data from this cohort suggest that the treatment combination of oral doxycycline and interferon beta-1a may be safe and effective in some patients with MS; however, further controlled clinical trials are warranted to demonstrate safety and efficacy in a larger patient population."

Dr Laura Bell, research communications officer at the MS Society, welcomed the study but said more research was needed.

"Antibiotics are cheap and easily available, which would make them an attractive treatment for MS if they were shown to be beneficial," she said.

"However this study is very early stage in only 15 people with MS and no firm conclusions can be drawn at this stage.

"The study also claims to reduce disability progression. Disability progression is difficult to measure and it is doubtful that meaningful measurements can be obtained in the four months in which this study was carried out.

"MS is an inherently variable, long-term condition and disability progression needs to be measured over years to find overall benefits from treatments."

[Jarg Armani]

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[Kahnee]

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[Spike]

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[Kahnee]

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[Molby]

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