Subject: S&S for 3/98

From: Richard529 <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 22:01:01 EST

The following items are from the March 1998 issue of Support & Sharing, a
bimonthly newsletter of the San Mateo County (CA) Multiple Sclerosis support
group.
 
>From Joyce Harnett
         San Mateo CA
         e-mail:  [email-masked]

NEW STUDY SAYS 
NERVES CUT IN MS
MS not only destroys the myelin surrounding nerve axons, it cuts through the
nerve axons themselves, concludes a new study at the Cleveland MS Clinic just
published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Once the axon or nerve fiber is cut, it cannot be restored, at least, not by
any therapies currently available. The finding makes MS more like other
neurological diseases such as Parkinson's where nerve fibers are destroyed.

The research team examined mycroscopically the autopsied brains of 11 MS
patients and of four persons free of brain disease.  They confirmed that
myelin, or nerve insulation, was destroyed, something long known and
considered the cause of deteriorating symptoms in MS. However, they discovered
as well that the long cellular “wires” or axons that transmit nerve impulses
had been severed. Nerve cells had lost their connections to each other and as
such were made useless. 

Depending on MS severity, the number of cut nerve cells ranged from 875 to
11,236 per cubic millimeter of affected brain tissue but there was less than
one on average in the four without MS. 
The research involved a very small number of MS patients—11—and in no way
determined how common this pathology is in MS patients at large. The study
raised the possibility that the condition may occur more often among MSers who
steadily decline than among those who experience periods of remission.

The director of the Cleveland Clinic said that knowing what is precisely wrong
can lead to better therapies. He said the research suggests doctors should be
more aggressive in treating MS with drugs such as interferons when it is first
diagnosed to protect nerves from permanent damage. Dr. Steven Rheingold of the
National MS Society cautioned that there is no proof that such early treatment
slows the disease. The study did not answer the question: Which comes first,
the demyelination or the severing of the nerve cells?

OTHER RESEARCH NEWS
Betaseron — This drug works for secondary progressive MS!  A 3-year clinical
trial in Europe has been stopped after two years because an interim analysis
of data showed “over-whelming efficacy." In the study were 718 individuals in
30 European clinical centers in 11 countries who had had RR/MS followed by
SP/MS, along with progressive deterioration. An independent advisory board
recommended that patients on placebo be switched to betaseron. Schering AG of
Berlin, the drug developer, plans to seek FDA approval for its use for SP/MS
through Berlex Laboratories which markets betaseron in this country. Pending
further anaylsis of the European data, a similar U.S. study will continue.
Betaseron has been available for RR/MS since 1993. 

Fatty Acids — A trial is beginning at St. Thomas Hospital in London to find
out if fatty acids from certain plants and fungi have the same effect on
humans as on animals. Disease in rats with an MS-like condition, when fed
purified forms of these fatty acids, was altered and did not develop. Dr.
Laurence Harbige of the University of Greenwich and St. Thomas thinks that
certain fatty acids work by dampening down damaging effects to the immune
system. He has written widely on nutritional approaches to medical care.

Resiniferatoxin — This drug, meant to alleviate urge incontinence—one dose is
expected to be effective for several months—will be studied in a 120-patient,
4-site Phase II trial by its developer, Afferon Corporation, Wayne, PA. Known
as RTX, the medication inhibits the transmission of messages from the
peripheral to the central nervous system by desensitizing overactive sensory
neurons. Administration is by a catheter procedure in a doctor's office.

TCR Peptide Vaccine — Connetics Corporation of Palo Alto has announced that,
in a multi-center Phase I/II trial with 106 MSers, its T-cell receptor vaccine
was not only safe to use but also produced an immune response. The response
rate among the vaccine-treated patients was double that of those on placebo.
The vaccine is thought to induce a response against the T-cells which cause
the inflammation and destruction of myelin. The company plans to continue this
research. 

Uric Acid — When mice with the MS-imitating disease experimental allergic
encephalomyelitis were injected with uric acid, weakness and paralysis were
reduced. Uric acid occurs naturally in the blood and inactivates a compound
suspected of playing a part in demylination. In examining hospital outpatients
researchers at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, where the
experiments took place, also found that MS patients had significantly lower
levels of uric acid in their blood than other patients. They also observed
that MS patients almost never get gout, a disease caused by exess uric acid.
The conclusion was that the substance may be useful in MS treatment but that
further studies are needed.