This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Dignan – In the opening post of this "Summary of the pipeline" thread, in the pre-clinical grouping you have listed:

70. 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1-beta-4-ribofuranoside (AICAR) (Medical University of South Carolina)

I am recently interested in AICAR; can you post more information about this University of South Carolina work? I understand some researchers with HHMI have been doing work on AICAR/exercise/diabetes. Do you know if this drug is available OTC or only by prescription or perhaps only to researchers?

Hi Lynda,



I watched an episode of Nova Science Now a while back (probably around July 2009) that discussed AICAR. The show discussed the work by Ronald M. Evans who was at the Salk Institute. Ronald Evans found that AICAR triggers a change in the gene expression in muscle tissue and causes muscle to produce both larger mitochondria and increased numbers of mitochondria. Both of these effects are identical to the physiological effects of endurance exercise such as running. Essentially, it made "couch potato" mice (those without access to an exercise wheel) perform like "long distance runner" mice (those with access to an exercise wheel).

Here are two websites where you can find out more info about Ronald Evans.

The Salk Institute:
http://www.salk.edu/faculty/evans.html

Howard Hughes Medical Institute:
http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigat ... s_bio.html

You can also find his papers on PubMed by doing an author search, e.g., "evans rm [au]" though you might find some unrelated work by authors with similar names.

I hope that this is helpful.

For what it's worth, AICAR is available from the chemical supply companies such as Sigma-Aldrich. However, I don't know if it's available from supplement suppliers in a form fit for human consumption.

By the way, it would be interesting to know what Terry Walhs thinks of this research...


NHE

This site list two sources (didn't follow them after4 reading the storage requirements)
http://aicar.co.uk/how-to-buy-aicar/

Since endurance exercise is known to reduce insulin resistance (hyperinsulinemia), I have been looking for something to enhance that exercise. AICAR does not seem possible at this time. In following up on NHE's mention of Ronald M. Evans, I came across this abstract of his work:

http://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674%2808%2900838-6



I am intrigued by the mention of resveratrol as having endurance-enhancing activities. Perhaps this is the mechanism through which resveratrol has an effect on MS?

-20°C is the temp of a standard non-autodefrosting freezer.


NHE

Hi dignan, It is really a great job putting together this list. It is really a tremendous help. .... I am just wondering if it contains drug developments being done in the Far East, like Japan, China, Korea or other countries like Russia. I am also wondering what is the situation with stem cell research in the Far East, as it seems to me that clinics get much more help from their governments than their counterparts in the West and they also meet less obstacles from civil right and relegious groups and big pharmas. A few months ago an article about stem cell trials in Korea sounded quite promising.

Anyone who knows more about the ongoing research has a favorit from the list? I have ppms, so I would be glad if I could join even a clinical trial of a promising drug in its third phase.
L

I just saw a TV news program regarding ShK (from sea anemone venom, not irvine) Has a human trial started / planned to be completed in the Netherlands.

Thanks Cure. I had seen something about it last week, but could not find any confirmation. I just looked again and there was a press release on August 21: http://tinyurl.com/8gfzkee

I am glad this Kv1.3 channel blocker has finally made it to the clinic after years of press releases and interesting articles written about it.

I just found your update. Thank you so much for the good work dignan! It is really appreciated.

An interesting summary:

http://www.mymsaa.org/publications/moti ... ver-story/