Date Added: 2007-10-10 06:30:06

Evening Standard via NewsEdge Corporation :

SCIENTISTS have developed a radical new drug that could reverse the effects of multiple sclerosis within weeks.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have developed a human antibody administered in a single dose that can repair myelin, the insulating covering of nerves that when damaged can lead to multiple sclerosis.

The breakthrough will be presented at the American Neurological Association meeting in Washington DC today and the researchers hope a treatment can be developed within years.

The drug has already been successfully tested on mice and preliminary human trials have begun.

"The findings could eventually lead to new treatments that could limit permanent disability," said Professor Arthur Warrington, who led the study.

Multiple sclerosis is the most common disabling neurological condition affecting young adults. Around 85,000 people in Britain have MS. Symptoms range from muscle stiffness and spasms, to speech difficulties and tremors. Myelin repair normally occurs spontaneously in healthy humans but with multiple sclerosis and other disorders of the central nervous system the process is very slow or fails altogether.

The antibody, which was genetically engineered from a single cell, binds to myelin and the surface of cells in the brain and spinal cord, then triggers the cells to begin the repair process, called remyelination.

The antibody is the first known drug designed to induce repair by acting within the central nervous system on the damaged cells responsible for myelin synthesis.

"The concept of using natural human antibodies to treat disease of this kind has not yet been tested in humans but these research findings are very promising," said Dr Moses Rodriguez. The study used laboratory mouse models of chronic progressive multiple sclerosis in humans..

Researchers found a small dose equivalent to 5mg in humans of the antibody was needed and took five weeks to work on average.

As a naturally occurring protein of the immune system, antibodies do not appear to have any side effects, nor are they toxic even when administered at 4,000 times the minimal effective dose.

Experts today hailed the discovery but warned that human trials were still some way off.

Dr Laura Bell of the MS Society said: "Myelin repair is an exciting avenue of research that holds a lot of promise as an MS treatment, which is why we have invested more than GBP3 million into it at our research centres in Cambridge and Edinburgh.

This is an exciting study but it's early days we'll be keen to see how it works in people with MS."

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