Well-known antidepressant could be used against multiple sclerosis

Efficacy in completely different disease discovered: antidepressant for MS

According to health experts, multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common inflammatory disease of the central nervous system. The disease is not curable. Researchers have now discovered that a well-known drug used in a completely different disease could also help with MS.

Incurable disease

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common inflammatory disease of the central nervous system. Despite intensive research, the disease is still considered incurable. Nevertheless, researchers are cautiously optimistic about the future. Thanks to new drugs, MS is becoming increasingly manageable. In addition, certain plant peptides can stop the MS course, as scientists found. According to research, with proper nutrition you can slow down multiple sclerosis. And a research team has now found that a well-known drug that is used in a completely different disease, could also help against MS.

Researchers have found that a drug used in depression could also help with multiple sclerosis (MS). (Image: DOC RABE Media / fotolia.com)

Antidepressant clomipramine against MS

The antidepressant clomipramine could also help combat the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS), especially the progressive form, which occurs without relapses. There are hardly any drugs for this type of MS.

This is what scientists from Prof. Dr. V. Wee Yong of the University of Calgary, Canada; Simon Faissner from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum found out.

To reach their conclusion, they scanned 1,040 generic medications and found one eligible for multiple sclerosis treatment based on preclinical studies.

Their results are now published in the journal "Nature Communications".

Other mechanisms

Twelve drugs are now approved for the relapsing phase of multiple sclerosis; For progressive forms, there are only a few therapeutic approaches.

"The mechanisms leading to damage in progressive MS are partly different than relapsing-remitting MS. Therefore, we need different therapeutic approaches for the latter, "Simon Faissner said in a statement.

The postdoctoral fellow from the Neurological University Clinic at St. Josef Hospital in Bochum carried out his work for the study during a research stay at the University of Calgary, funded by the Prize for Clinical Research of the Medical Faculty of the Ruhr University.

Potential side effects already known

The team worked with approved drugs for which potential side effects have already been documented.

From these, the researchers selected 249 well-tolerated drugs that safely enter the central nervous system, where progressive inflammation occurs in progressive MS.

In cell cultures, they tested which of the 249 substances can protect nerve cells from the damaging effects of iron. Because of cell damage in multiple sclerosis iron is released, which in turn damages nerve cells.

After these tests, 35 candidates left to analyze the researchers for further properties, such as whether they can reduce damage to the mitochondria - the power plants of the cells - or lower the activity of white blood cells, which attack the isolation of the nerve cells in MS. The drug clomipramine proved to be promising.

Preclinical studies show success

The substance was then investigated by the scientists in mice with a disease comparable to relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis in humans.

The treatment completely suppressed the neurological deficits, causing less nerve cell damage and inflammation.

In another test, they treated mice with a disease similar to progressive MS in humans. Again, there was an effect when the researchers started the therapy immediately at the onset of the first clinical signs of the disease.

Unlike animals treated with placebo, diminished symptoms such as paralysis appeared.

Clinical studies planned

Simon Faissner has been back from Canada in Bochum since January 2017 and works in the group of Prof. Dr. med. Ralf Gold's efforts to identify other potentially MS-protective drugs and better understand the mechanisms behind the progressive course.

"Based on the promising preclinical data, our long-term goal is to investigate clomipramine and other drugs from screening in clinical trials on patients," explains Faissner.

"One benefit of generic medicines is that there is sufficient clinical experience regarding the potential for side effects."

Phase 1 studies, ie studies of tolerability in healthy volunteers, therefore need not be performed.

Advanced Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is the most common cause of neurological disability in young people in the Western world.

In the disease the own white blood cells damage the covering of the nerve cells, the so-called myelin sheath.

This leads to neurological deficits, which in 85 percent of patients run in spurts and can cause visual disturbances, paralysis or feelings of numbness.

In the majority of patients, there is a gradual deterioration, the progression, after 15 to 20 years. In ten percent of patients, the disease progresses from the beginning without the onset of relapses. (Ad)