Studies in mice suggest that popular cholesterol-lowering statin drugs might someday double as treatment for MS. Mice prone to an MS-like disease showed reversal or prevention of symptoms after being fed doses of Lipitor® (atorvastatin), according to researcher Dr. Sawsan Youssef of Stanford University in California.

Previous studies have suggested that the statin class of cholesterol–lowering medications can help regulate immune function. In their study, Youssef’s team fed Lipitor to a group of mice bred to develop a disease called experimental autoimmune encepthalomyelitis (EAE), which is an autoimmune condition used by researchers as a model for MS because it also results in the slow erosion of myelin. According to researchers, daily feedings of Lipitor “reversed paralysis” in rodents with the chronic form of EAE and seemed to prevent relapses in mice prone to an on-again/off-again form of the disease.

The scientists then took a close look at segments of the animals’ brains and spinal cords under the microscope. They observed a “significant reduction” in the number of lesions associated with EAE, “as well as the extent of infiltration of those lesions.” Youssef stressed that “although these results are exciting and promising, it is the clinical (human) trials that will determine how efficacious statin treatment may be in treating multiple sclerosis. Just such a trial is in the planning stages,” he said.

In fact, a clinical trial of Simvastatin®, also a statin drug, is underway at Yale University, the Medical University of South Carolina, and the University of Colorado. www.reutershealth.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 9th, 2002 at 5:02 pm and is filed under All Articles, Medications, Multiple Sclerosis News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.