Antibiotic May Be a Potential Therapy for MS

April 22, 2002

A common antibiotic, long used to treat infections in humans, may have

potential as a treatment for MS, according to a new study published in

the medical literature in December 2001. The drug, minocycline, is a

member of the tetracycline family of antibiotics and was tested in a

condition that mimics MS. Study results portray a potential treatment for

MS that could significantly decrease the severity of disease attacks or

even block the onset of relapses, hence ameliorating many of the

disease’s debilitating symptoms.

Minocycline is already used to treat several different infections, but it

is also effective in rheumatoid arthritis––an inflammatory condition. Due

to this anti-inflammatory property, researchers at the University of

Wisconsin-Madison gave minocycline to rats with a disease that closely

resembles the inflammatory process of human MS. Senior researcher Ian D.

Duncan, PhD, reports that “animals treated with minocycline did not

develop nerve problems, or had a less severe case, than did untreated

rats. . . . The results also showed that they could treat the animals

successfully either before or after the disease began.”

The hope is that minocycline may be able to significantly decrease the

severity of attacks in MS or even block relapses completely. By doing so,

it could relieve many of the symptoms, from paralysis to blindness, that

plague people with this disease. Studies of minocycline in humans with MS

will begin in 2002 at the University of Calgary, Canada. “It is very

important that a well-conducted clinical trial is carried out to test

whether it is safe and effective in MS,” says Duncan. He adds that

minocycline would have advantages over drugs presently used because it is

less expensive, can be taken by mouth, and could be used short-term to

stop disease progression. (webMD)

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