There are many papers on PubMed concerning lipoic acid and its antioxidant characteristics. You can search through the abstracts at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi
Run a combined search query on "lipoic acid" AND "multiple sclerosis" (enter exactly as typed, quotes and all) and you should find several papers which discuss lipoic acid and EAE. Now MS and EAE are spelled different for a good reason, they aren't the same. However, the data look promising. Note that you can usually get the full papers from your local university if they have a good medical library. Some journals also offer their papers at no cost though this is rare.
You may also want to read a book by Dr. Nicholas Perricone titled "The Perricone Prescription." Dr. Perricone is a dermatologist. However, his focus appears to be on treating inflammatory conditions. He discusses research work he has done with antioxidants and also with diet modifications that reduce the body's overall tendency towards inflammation. I found his book informative and try to apply the diet modifications the best I can however I'm not 100% by any means - much more like 30% or so at best.
Anyways, to answer your question, I do take lipoic acid supplements (actually R lipoic acid as described below) as well as other antioxidants, e.g., vitamin E, vitamin A & D from cod liver fish oil, vitamin C. In addition, I also take omega 3 & 6 fish oil. I'm also currently researching grape seed extract and may add that to my regimen at some time in the future. Lastly, I drink 4-5 cups of strongly brewed green tea per day most of which is decaffeinated. I try not to over do it with the fat soluble vitamins since these can accumulate to toxic levels if safe recommendations are exceeded. To complete the record here, I've also been on Avonex for a little over 4 years now.
With regards to lipoic acid, you'll find several formulations available. There's alpha lipoic acid, R lipoic acid, and lipoic acid supplemented with biotin (a B vitamin which can become depleted when taking lipoic acid at doses 100mg or greater per day).
Alpha lipoic acid is actually a 50/50 mixture of two stereo isomers due to the molecule having what's known as a chiral center (an atom that can be joined to other atoms in a non-identical mirror image manner). These two forms are called the R and S forms. They are equally produced during chemical synthesis. You can think of them as left handed and right handed versions of the same molecule. In effect, they're mirror images of each other much as your hands are when you hold them together. Chemical synthesis will always produce equal amounts of all possible stereo isomers unless specific and often difficult steps are taken to ensure the production of one or the other (another example is with synthetic vitamin E which has 3 chiral centers so there are 8 possible forms produced all of which are mirror images of each other for each chiral center).
What's important about all of the above chemistry is that R lipoic acid is the natural form that's found in the body, more specifically in the mitochondria. The biological activity of R lipoic acid is also reported to be roughly 6-12 fold higher than S lipoic acid if I rember correctly. There are several papers which discuss the differences between the two forms available on PubMed.
The above discussion brings forth the second form that I listed, R lipoic acid, which can be found from a few different manufactures such as Humax and Source Naturals. Incidentally, Humax offers their R lipoic acid fortified with biotin. I can't make any recommendations here so you'll have to do your own investigation regarding the different brands.
What's interesting about lipoic acid when taken as a supplement is that its soluble in both the lipid and aqueous environments of a cell. This enables it to function as an antioxidant in both the cell plasma membrane and in the cytosol as well as other aqueous environments such as blood. Lipoic acid is also known to cross the blood brain barrier (which plays a role in why it was found to be helpful with EAE). Lipoic acid is also used to treat diabetic neuropathies. This is a standard treatment in some countries in Europe. Lipoic acid has also been shown to inhibit NFk-B (which plays a role in the production of proinflammatory cell signaling molecules). One other issue which I feel is physiologically important, is that lipoic acid can play a central role in regenerating other antioxidants in the body, e.g., vitamin E, vitamin C, and glutathione.
Anyways, I realize that this answer was probably more than I needed to go into and I hope that the chemistry discussion did not go into too much detail. However, I believe that the issues I raised are important to understanding the different forms of lipoic acid supplements and why one formulation may or may not be preferred over another.
By the way, I would be very interested in hearing if/how anyone else is using antioxidant supplements, either as a means of helping to control inflammation or for any other reason.
NHE
Disclaimer: I'm not a Dr. nor in the medical profession and I can't make any specific medical recommendations for anyone.