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Ed Yeates reporting A pregnancy hormone designed to protect the fetus from rejection is also apparently halting the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS). This new application is now being tested in clinical trials at several centers, including the University of Utah.
This hormone called estriol has been licensed and marketed throughout Europe and Asia for the past 40 years for the treatment of hot flashes. But researchers observed something else that was going on within a subset of women who were pregnant.
Women with MS noticed at the end of their second trimester, the symptoms of their disease decreased dramatically. That's a time in pregnancy when the hormone estriol is naturally elevated.
"Toward the end of pregnancy, there could be as much as an 80 percent decline in the relapse rate. So that's very dramatic," said Dr. John Rose, with the Department of Neurology at the University of Utah.
So, at the University of Utah and the Salt Lake Veterans Hospital, human clinical trials have begun, testing a pure form of this hormone, shipped from Europe. In animal studies, estriol not only reduced MS lesions in the brain, but also showed signs of repairing the damaged insulation, called myelin, that protects the nerves.
For now, the clinical trials are only for women, but what about men with MS? "We don't know that for sure, but we are not willing to test it at this point; and that brings up the question: well, is there a hormone equivalent in men?" Rose said.
With both men and women, the goal in testing this, and a number of other experimental drugs, is to get someone with MS to a point where he or she is walking and mobile without a wheelchair.
Darren Franchow continues working every day walking with a cane and without the need of his wheelchair. He has been on an immune system infusion for several years now. The therapy called TYSABRI has been so successful and it's about to move into a stage two clinical trial.
"And the MRI scan with this particular agent, we are measuring the number of active lesions that occur, and we can see that just plummet rather dramatically with that agent," Rose said.
Jenny Sorenson is on a different experimental drug. Like others, some are immunosuppressant therapies; others are what are called "fine tuners."
"I feel better than I've felt in a long time. I think more clearly. I'm healthier than I've ever been, honestly, in my whole life," Sorenson said.
Four more new therapies are on the horizon: drugs MS patients will be able to take orally as a pill.
E-mail: eyeates@ksl.com
