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Cholesterol Drugs Promising in Multiple Sclerosis
By Ben Hirschler, European Pharmaceuticals Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - Cholesterol-lowering drugs, widely used to reduce the risk of heart attack, could also be effective in treating multiple sclerosis, according to new research published on Friday.
The news underscores the reputation of statins as potential miracle pills to rival aspirin.
Already hailed for revolutionizing the management of heart disease, the drugs -- which will soon be available over the counter in Britain -- are also being studied in the fight against Alzheimer's disease and osteoporosis.
Researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina have produced the first clinical evidence that statins can help in multiple sclerosis in an article in The Lancet medical journal.
A group of 30 patients with MS given 80 mg a day of Merck & Co Inc's Zocor, or simvastatin, had a 44 percent reduction in brain lesions after three months of treatment, their study showed.
Brain lesions are areas of inflammation, and are markers of the progression and severity of MS -- a debilitating disease in which nerve cells lose their insulating sheath, leading to muscle weakness, fatigue, bladder problems and impaired vision.
Since existing MS treatments, such as interferons, are expensive injections and are only partially effective, swapping to statin pills -- which are already taken by millions of people every day -- would offer clear advantages.
But Professor Chris Polman, an MS expert at the VU Medical Center in Amsterdam, said more research was needed, including a large placebo-controlled clinical trial. The first of these trials is about to commence and could take around two years.
"It's a very good start but it's not conclusive," Polman said in a telephone interview, adding it was possible some brain lesions may have disappeared spontaneously given the relapsing-remitting nature of the disease.
The successful preliminary results recorded by Timothy Vollmer and colleagues in South Carolina follow earlier findings that statins can reverse paralysis caused by a similar condition to MS in mice.
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY
Statins were first developed for their ability to block an enzyme involved in the liver's production of cholesterol. But researchers have since found they also counter key inflammatory processes that may be central to several chronic degenerative diseases.
Mike O'Donovan, chief executive of Britain's MS Society, said the latest findings were encouraging.
"These are early days but we must hope statins can prove to be an effective weapon in the growing armory of treatments to attack this very distressing life-long disease," he said.
Still, much work remains to be done, including discovering the optimal dose for statins in MS, since initial indications suggest it may have to be higher than for people with raised levels of LDL or "bad" cholesterol.
In the meantime, Polman urged MS sufferers not to switch from existing medications, warning that premature use of statins could develop into a "dangerous boomerang."
That risk may be heightened in countries like Britain which this week became the first in the world to approve the sale of simvastatin without prescription, although only at a low 10 mg dose.
Other major manufacturers of statins include Pfizer Inc, whose Lipitor drug is the world's largest-selling prescription medicine with sales last year of $9.23 billion, and AstraZeneca Plc, which recently launched Crestor.
The current market leaders in MS treatment are Serono SA, Biogen Idec and Schering AG -- all of which sell versions of beta interferon -- and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, which makes Copaxone.
© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
Original article can be found here
