Diabetes

Diabetes drug shows promise for treatment of MS.

 Nearly 350,000 Americans suffer from Multiple Sclerosis, a disease that strikes women twice as often as men. Some treatments are available for this crippling disease, but they all require injections.

Marjorie Fujara just adopted a baby girl. She's ready for the challenges of motherhood, but at 41, she faces a more serious challenge. Eight years ago, Marjorie was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.Today, she's in a trial to test a new treatment involving the drug pioglitazone, which is used for Type II diabetes.

Dr. Douglas Feinstein, a neuroscientist, says, “The relationship between Type II diabetes and Multiple Sclerosis, there probably isn't any really strong correlation and it's just a serendipitous discovery that we came across.”

So far, things are looking good for Marjorie. Her symptoms aren't flaring up as often and she has no side effects. If the study results continue to show promise, pioglitazone could become the first treatment for MS taken in pill form.

Source: WNDU Newscenter

Drugs used to treat some diabetic patients may also slow the progression of MS.

In an American study, two types of thiazolidinediones (TZDs) prevented the development of an MS-like disease in animals, EAE. The drugs also reduced symptoms in mice that were already ill. The drugs appeared to be effective in treating both a chronic form of the disease and the relapsing/remitting form.

While it is too soon to begin prescribing TZDs to patients with MS, the findings provide a glimmer of hope to patients, the study authors note.

"The minimum we're hoping for is that they will be as good as any of the existing drugs," study author Dr. Douglas Feinstein from the University of Illinois in Chicago. "But there's a possibility they could prove to be better because this is a different class of drugs with different targets and effects."

TZDs help cells throughout the body to use insulin, the body's key blood sugar-regulating hormone. The drugs work by binding with receptors, known as PPAR gamma, which are present mainly in fat cells.

The drugs also prevent the growth of lymphocytes or immune cells, and reduce the production of inflammatory compounds in the brain.

The drugs could cause some patients to gain weight and can contribute to high blood pressure, so should not be prescribed to patients with heart disease.

Ref: Annals of Neurology 2002;51:694-702

Multiple Sclerosis and Diabetes are closely linked diseases – Milk protein a common factor.

A team of researchers led by Hospital for Sick Children (HSC) senior scientist Michael Dosch has determined that multiple sclerosis and type I (juvenile) diabetes mellitus are far more closely linked than previously thought, including the role cow milk protein plays as a risk factor in the development of both diseases for people who are genetically susceptible.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) and type I diabetes mellitus are autoimmune disorders, where the body's immune system attacks its own tissue. The diseases are entirely different clinically, but have nearly identical ethnic and geographic distribution, genetic similarities, and, as is now known, shared environmental risk factors. In diabetes and MS, there is a long, drawn-out period of silent disease years before the appearance of symptoms and diagnosis of the disease. In diabetes, it is this "pre-diabetes" phase that is targeted by interventions to stop the development of the full-blown disease. Similar efforts are planned for individuals at high risk for MS.

"We are planning a large international study with centres in Canada and the US to test the possibility of interventions during the pre-MS phase," says Dr. Dosch of St. Michael's Hospital & Pittsburgh Children's Hospital.

In the first step to test just how far the similarities between MS and diabetes go, the study's researchers looked for signs of abnormal immunity to cow milk in MS patients. Such abnormalities were indeed found in most patients, suggesting that similar processes may contribute to both diseases. If confirmed in a larger and prospective family study, it may become possible to design dietary means to influence the course of MS as well as diabetes.