Doctors believe they are ‘on the brink of a new class of treatments’ for MS

[Sly Saint]

Doctors in Cambridge believe they are “on the brink of a new class of treatments” for multiple sclerosis (MS) after a trial in patients suggested nerve damage may be repaired.

The treatment involves combining the common diabetes drug, metformin, with clemastine, an antihistamine, to help repair myelin.
This is the protective membrane that wraps around nerve cells. It becomes damaged in MS and causes symptoms such as fatigue, pain, spasms and problems with walking.

Previous evidence from animal studies found metformin enhanced the effect of clemastine on myelin repair, but until now the two drugs have never been tested together in people.

Dr Nick Cunniffe, academic neurologist at the University of Cambridge, who led the latest CCMR-Two trial, said: “I am increasingly sure that remyelination is part of the solution to stopping progressive disability in MS.

“We still need to research the long-term benefits and side-effects before people with MS consider taking these drugs.

“But my instinct is that we are on the brink of a new class of treatments to stop MS progression, and within the next decade we could see the first licensed treatment that repairs myelin and improves the lives of people living with MS.”

MSN

 

[hotblack]

Direct link to the above article in the Independent

And today’s research press release/news item from University of Cambridge

Common diabetes drug and antihistamine could together repair multiple sclerosis damage, trial finds

Scientists behind the trial say they are “on the brink of a new class of treatments” and that the findings take us another step closer to stopping disease

www.cam.ac.uk

And the MS Society who sponsored the CCMR2 trial

https://www.mssociety.org.uk/research/news/trial-results-suggest-drug-combo-could-boost-myelin-repair-relapsing-ms

A few notes from reading these
- these are early findings from a phase two clinical trial
- previously trialed in animal studies the two drugs had never been tested together in people
- 70 people with relapsing MS took part over six months, with a split between this combination and placebo, all continued whatever their normal treatments were
- the main measure was visual evoked potential which looks at how quickly messages travel between the eyes and the brain
- in the group taking the drugs, the signals stayed the same speed in placebo the signals slowed down. The difference between the groups was apparently small, but significant
- no difference in reported disability between groups and MRI results are not yet known
- they say they don’t yet know for sure the effect of these drugs in MS

 

[MeSci]

'on the brink' is pretty meaningless, and is probably a sign that they want more funding. It's often used at such times.

 

[hotblack]

'on the brink' is pretty meaningless, and is probably a sign that they want more funding. It's often used at such times.

I wondered about that too. It seems to be being pushed by the charity who funded it and the university doing it as a novel way of rapidly getting results, but then there aren’t really results yet. The changes they’ve seen are deemed significant but then when there hasn’t been changes they say that’s to be expected as it’s a short time period, so a bit inconsistent.

On the other hand it could be looked at as just be good charity PR, telling their supporters what they’re doing with the money they have. Showing progress. And yes, perhaps trying to get more funding.