Posted on 06/13/2023 8:05:12 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
A decade after scientists identified an over-the-counter antihistamine as a treatment for multiple sclerosis, researchers have developed an approach to measure the drug's effectiveness in repairing the brain.
The researchers, led by Ari Green, used MRI scans to study the drug's impact on the brain of 50 participants in a clinical study.
In MS, patients lose myelin, the protective insulation around nerve fibers. This myelin loss triggers delays in nerve signals, leading to weakness and spasticity, and other symptoms.
In the brain, water trapped between the thin layers of myelin that wrap nerve fibers cannot move as freely as water floating between brain cells. This unique property of myelin allowed imaging experts to develop a technique to compare the difference in myelin levels before and after the drug was administered, by measuring the so-called myelin water fraction, or the ratio of myelin water to the total water content in brain tissue.
"This is the first example of brain repair being documented on MRI for a chronic neurological condition," said Green.
Myelin increased even after medication was stopped
In the study, patients with MS who enrolled in the ReBUILD trial were divided into two groups: the first group received clemastine for the first three months of the study and the second group received clemastine only in months three to five.
The findings corroborate the results of a previous study with the same 50 patients that had found the allergy medication reduced delayed nerve signaling, potentially alleviating symptoms.
In the current study, researchers looked at the corpus callosum. They found that significant repair occurred outside the visible lesions typically associated with MS.
Clemastine works in this setting by stimulating the differentiation of myelin-making stem cells. It still isn't ideal, though, making the water fraction measurement an important tool in developing better therapeutics.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Other countries have it OTC.
There are many I love very much who would benefit from this.
I googled ‘clemastine’ and it seems to be available over the internet.
p
Buy it now before the company is bought up and the price increased 10,000%.
I found a similar study, with similar results, from 2018. They are also running studies on fecal transplants, which have had excellent results.
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