Cheap blood pressure drug could fight MS

Published on Monday 17 August 2009 22:57

A CHEAP drug widely used to reduce blood pressure might help to combat multiple sclerosis.

In tests, lisinopril prevented paralysis in mice engineered to develop MS symptoms. It even caused paralysed mice suffering from progressive disease to recover normal movement.

The drug is normally used to reduce high blood pressure. But scientists found it also targets inflammatory biological pathways involved in MS.

Multiple sclerosis occurs when the body's own immune system attacks the fatty insulation, called myelin, which surrounds nerve fibres in the brain. The resulting symptoms range from mild numbness and tingling to blindness or paralysis.

Earlier research showed that areas of the brain damaged by MS were sensitive to angiotensin, a hormone that raises blood pressure. Lisinopril lowers blood pressure by blocking an enzyme involved in the production of angiotensin.

The researchers found that lisinopril reduced molecular measures of inflammation that accompany MS. The drug also triggered the proliferation of regulatory T cells, a type of immune system cell that holds back others which might cause damage in the body.

The findings from Stanford University in the US are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr Marc Feldmann, from Imperial College London, said the research could slash the cost of treating MS with expensive antibody drugs such natalizumab, marketed as Tysabri.

"If MS patients can be treated with lisinopril at something like 1 per cent of the price of Tysabri, then far more patients will receive adequate therapy, at a substantially lower cost."