Common acne medication offers new treatment for multiple sclerosis

[Webdog]

This article was from a few months ago, but I just saw it. It's about multiple sclerosis, but perhaps something useful can be gleaned from it.

A research team has published important research which will benefit individuals who are in the early stages of multiple sclerosis (MS). Their study results show that a common acne medication, minocycline, can help prevent MS symptoms from developing into full-blown MS in patients who are in the early stages of the disease.

A Canadian clinical trial led by researchers at the University of Calgary's Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI), at the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM), shows that minocycline, a common acne medication, can slow the progress of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) in people who have recently experienced their first symptoms.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170601124019.htm

Original article: http://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa1608889

Is anyone aware of any minocycline studies for ME/CFS?

 

[Diwi9]

Is anyone aware of any minocycline studies for ME/CFS?

Fascinating research you've posted. No, I don't know of current studies, but I was on it for two years as a teenager and I've wondered if its effects contributed to the later development of my current illness.

 

[Webdog]

As an interesting side note, acne bacteria can infect the brain, and the infection generally goes unrecognized. Yet another "stealth" pathogen.

https://www.livescience.com/9299-acne-bacteria-infect-brain-body.html

The bacteria that live on the skin and contribute to acne may also cause infections after surgery, including infections in the brain, researchers say.

"Generally, we tend to disregard this organism, because we think it's a harmless organism. So if we see it, we don’t report it," Lambert said. "We should take more notice of this and say it could be causing infection."

However, evidence for the link between the bacteria, known as P. acnes, and disease is just emerging, Lambert said.

Typically, when P. acnes shows up in an infection within the body, most physicians assume it's just a contaminant — that it was transferred from the skin to the inside of the body, perhaps during a medical procedure, but was not actually causing a disease.

"We're recognizing more recently that, in fact, there are distinct clinical syndromes that are associated with infections with P. acnes as an actual pathogen and not simply a contaminant," said Christopher Vinnard, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

For example, some studies, including a case report published by Vinnard and his colleagues, have linked the bacteria to the formation of brain abscesses after neurosurgery.

Vinnard and his colleagues almost missed the bug altogether. The bacteria take a long time to grow, and the researchers were about to throw out the culture plates when P. acnes finally reared its head.

Infections with P. acnes may be under-recognized, Vinnard said, because after doing a biopsy, researchers may get rid of their cultures before these bacteria have a chance to grow, or because researchers use the wrong culture media.

 

[Art Vandelay]

It has been postulated by some that MS in some cases can be caused by Chlamydia Pneumoniae. If this is the case, an antibiotic like minocycline may well give some improvement.

More from David Wheldon: http://www.davidwheldon.co.uk/ms-treatment1.html