In an analysis piece, the Bureau argued that there should be more research into Multiple Sclerosis treatments. At present, there are a number of generic drugs that have shown promise in initial MS trials.
However, none listed below have completed Phase III level of trialing. This phase of trial aims to be the definitive assessment of the drug’s effectiveness and so would be expected if the drug was to become an accepted standard treatment.
It is acknowledged that there are some inherent difficulties in reading too much into early stage trials, notably with animal models or small test groups. However, the lack of funding to take these trials to include a larger number of MS sufferers means that this is the only proof often available.
As such the data below still reflects as yet unproven treatments.
VITAMIN D
There is considerable evidence linking people lacking vitamin D and those at higher risk of developing MS. Despite this, there has been no major trial looking at MS disease progression and vitamin D supplementation. In preventative terms, some work has been done. One study showed women taking supplemental vitamin D had a 40% lower risk of developing MS than women not taking vitamin D.
But in terms of treating patients with a diagnosis, little has been done on a large scale, despite there being a compelling case for such a study to be undertaken. There have been some studies that, looking at a six month supplementation with vitamin D3, produced an increased vitamin D status and serum TGF-β1 in the blood tests of MS patients. A tiny study showed that only 16% of 25 people with MS given an average of 14,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D a day for a year suffered relapses.
In contrast, close to 40% of 24 MS patients who took an average of 1,000 IU a day — the amount recommended by many MS specialists — relapsed. Also, people taking high-dose vitamin D suffered 41% fewer relapses than the year before the study began, compared with 17% of those taking typical doses. Another study into pediatric MS has demonstrated an additional 2,000 international units of vitamin D supplementation a day, could theoretically cut a patient’s relapse rate in half.
In one two-year study of a course of treatment with vitamin D and calcium, 10 patients with MS had a 60% reduction in the predicted number of relapses, but there was no control group. In another uncontrolled study, 15 patients who received Vitamin D supplements for 48 weeks experienced a 50% reduction in relapses. Lastly, a Canadian team recently demonstrated that the use of high doses of vitamin D3 during a long period (6 months–1 year) showed a 41% reduction in the number of relapses and a significant improvement in disability scores was observed in the treated patients. The authors concluded that this provided ‘ample justification for much more extensive therapeutic trials’.
There have been some concerns that taking Vitamin D might result in hypercalcemia. However, some initial research has shown that vitamin D intake beyond the current upper limit is safe by a large margin, although this was not for a prolonged period of time.
MINOCYCLINE
Minocycline, a relatively cheap, readily available and well-tolerated tetracycline antibiotic has shown potential for the treatment of MS. In small trials it has been shown to have reduced MS lesions by as much as 84%, reduced annualized relapse rates from an average of 1.2 a year to 0.25 a year, and found only one in 40 people with MS on the drug having active lesions (and that person was on half-dose).
FUMARIC ACID ESTERS
Fumaric acid esters (FAE) have also been shown to have some effect on people with Relapse Remitting Multiple Sclerosis. It seems that by detoxifying radicals released during the inflammation process, FAE protects nerve and glial cells. In one trial, FAE produced significant reductions in the number and volume of lesions and improved disability scores. In this, treatment with FAE reduced by 69% the mean total number of new lesions compared with placebo.
PARASITIC INFECTION
There is also evidence that parasite infection is correlated with a reduced number of exacerbations and altered immune reactivity in multiple sclerosis. In one Argentinian analysis, conducted over almost 5 years, doctors looked at MS sufferers who happened to have an infection with parasites compared to MS sufferers who did not. The parasite-infected MS patients showed a significantly lower number of exacerbations, minimal variation in disability scores, as well as fewer magnetic resonance imaging changes when compared with uninfected MS patients. And in a recent Phase 1 study of pigworm eggs, the number of new lesions showing up on MRI scanning fell from an average of 6.6 to 2.0. After the pigworm doses were discontinued, the mean number of lesions rose from 2 to almost 6. There is an ongoing Phase II study at Nottingham University, funded by the British MS Society, into whether infecting MS patients with helminths could provide a simple, cheap, natural and controllable treatment for the debilitating condition.
LIPOIC ACID
Lipoic acid (LA) is an antioxidant that suppresses and treats and disease similar to MS in mice. It’s antioxidant properties amongst other benefits, make it a contender for a therapeutic alternative for multiple sclerosis. One study has shown that a dose of 1200 mg oral lipoic acid can achieve beneficial changes in serum levels in patients with multiple sclerosis, by increasing the ratio of Th2 to Th1 cytokines in circulating cells. But the study showed no evidence in terms of relapse rates or disability progression.
LOW DOSE NALTREXONE (LDN)
One small trial showed that this drug, that is also used in higher quantities as an opiate antagonist to treat recovering drug addicts, showed that LDN was associated with significant improvement in mental health quality of life measures. Another small trial in people with primary progressive multiple sclerosis showed that there was a ‘significant reduction of spasticity’ in patients.
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If you know of any other drug that has shown promise for MS please add this to the comments below and we will incorporate the most convincing arguments into this article.
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August 5th, 2011 at 4:30 am (#)
I’ve been taking LDN for MS for almost 7-1/2 years, and I swear by it. Not only am I doing better then could have realistically been expected on ANY therapy, I’ve saved well over $80 thousand dollars in medical costs.
The last conventional therapy I took, shortly after I was diagnosed, cost over $1,100 per month (I’m sure it’s MUCH more now) and it only made things worse. LDN costs about $30 per month and has the added advantage of being orally administered and it actually makes me feel better.
The reason you don’t hear much about LDN [and some of the other therapies based on generics] is that no pharmaceutical company could seriously hope to get its up-front investment back if it decided to test and develop LDN for use in MS. The enormous expense needed for the large-scale clinical testing required before approval can be given for a new use of an established medication is something that’s recovered by passing on high prices to consumers when the medication is finally released.
But since patients can ALREADY get LDN for about a dollar or so per day (as long as they can get a doctor to prescribe it), no patient or insurance company will have any incentive to pay vastly higher prices for a new, brand-name version of exactly the same thing. Therefore research and development of LDN for use in Multiple Sclerosis just isn’t a sensible investment, despite the fact that it’s a VERY sensible treatment to try.
On the other hand, there ARE pharmaceutical companies with a strong vested interest in NOT letting LDN get to market as a competing brand-name treatment formally approved for use in treating MS. No one wants to compete with it so they marginalize it by sneering that “all the studies have been small so it doesn’t count”. Well, of COURSE the only LDN studies have been relatively small and few! Who’s supposed to pay for the larger studies when there’s no profit to be made?
There are more of us every day who have used LDN successfully in treating MS, Crohn’s Disease, and other auto-immune and immune-deficient disorders, and we do what we can to spread the word. I wish I’d heard about and tried LDN FIRST instead of the obscenely expensive conventional treatments. What a waste!
August 5th, 2011 at 5:19 am (#)
NAG, or nacetylglucosamine has been show to reduce glial branching and relax over active white blood cells. Studies on genetics have shown that the presence or absence of this amino acide can cause ms specific gene switching, and explains why zygotic twins don’t have the same risks to ms. These studies as well as with VitaminD are extremely compeling. Not enough ROI to justify larger studies I suppose.
I am glad you brought up lipoic acid as well. Alpha lipoic acid can be used intravenously as an alternative to steroid treatments, for those who have built intolerences to steroids. I would love to see this be studied widely.
There are hundreds of other inexpensive options that have not been fully tested, and I appreciate this article. You picked well. Thanks.
August 5th, 2011 at 4:59 pm (#)
vitamin D. professor of medicine at Creighton University in Nebraska, US, will describe a trial showing how Vitamin D and calcium supplements given to cancer patients dramatically improved survival. The trial was originally designed to assess the effects of the supplements on osteoporosis, the bone-thinning disease, and only later switched to examine their effects on cancer. Other papers will present results of the effect of vitamin D on bowel cancer and adenocarcinoma, a cancer of the skin and other tissues. http://www.1wallmart.com/category.php?id_category=21 Professor Dalgeish said he had been intrigued by research on patients with melanoma by the University of Leeds which showed that those with the lowest level of Vitamin D in their blood had the poorest outlook. They were 30 per cent more likely to suffer a recurrence of the disease after treatment than those who had the highest levels. “It was the most staggering thing. http://www.cleansemart.com When we had a validated test and looked at our patients [at St George's] the majority were low. I am trying to get my colleagues to look at all their cancer patients.
August 6th, 2011 at 1:04 pm (#)
With respect to Low Dose Naltrexone, you could also ask the question that given the fact that LDN has been trialled at Phase 1 and 2 for Crohn’s int the US, why is no-one beating down the door of UK institutions to do further trials here and get it made available to all on the NHS, not just those whose GPs who A) Have actually hear of it and B) Are willing to prescribe it.
August 10th, 2011 at 8:09 pm (#)
At age 39 years I started to get a very itchy left arm for weeks, then woke up one morning and found my legs very heavy, and tired all the time. I had walking difficulties and tried to carry on with life, but it got the better of me. After many tests etc I was diagnosed with MS. I have tried many drugs, but I don’t take betaferones. I continue to live my life on a day to day bases as MS is unpredictable but I do try.