Study Reveals Unexpected Mechanism of New Multiple Sclerosis Treatment

In September, patients suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS) received the welcome news that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved a promising new drug for their condition called Gilenya.

The new study from the Chun lab suggests that the drug Gilenya has important effects within the central nervous system.

Now, a team from The Scripps Research Institute has discovered that this drug's success may involve an unexpected biological mechanism acting within the central nervous system.

This difference may mean that Gilenya offers even more benefits than previously realised and would represent the first MS therapy with direct central nervous system activities.

The work, published on December 21, 2010 in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also reveals potential new strategies targeting the central nervous system for research into better MS treatments.

"This drug could make a big difference to MS patients," says Jerold Chun, a professor in the department of molecular biology and member of the Dorris Neuroscience Center at Scripps Research. "And these results are going to make doctors and scientists consider central nervous system mechanisms in MS therapies, as they follow patients being treated with Gilenya."

Beyond the immune system?
Gilenya is the first oral MS drug available and it was approved to treat relapsing forms of MS, the most common initial presentation of the debilitating and potentially deadly disease. The understanding among biomedical researchers has been that, like all other primary MS therapies, Gilenya acts on a patient's malfunctioning immune system to prevent the attack on the brain that causes the disease.