myelin repair research

[SKL]

There's an interesting article in NMSS's magazine Momentum this month on Dr Jonan Chan's creation of a new type of a computer microchip. He wanted to investigate ways to find the effectiveness of drugs already approved by the FDA for stimulating the body's system for repairing myelin. He knew it would take many years to look at the many 1000s of drugs this would involve. Now, with the new microchip, one drug can be evaluated in just a few days. So far, two have looked promising and have gone into trials to observe their potential of MS myelin nerve repair. Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...

[agate]

I'm afraid I couldn't get that link to work. We could try this one:

Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...

Thanks for finding and posting this. Myelin repair looks very promising.

[SalpalSally]

Sounds very promising and also wonderful.
Thanks SKL for bringing this to us.

[SKL]

yes Sally I think myelin repair will become a treatment bringing some significant improvement in our function, long before an actual cure is found. Myelin growth could give those, especially in beginning stages, little awareness of progression of disease.

[Virginia]

Thanks SKL, it sounds very good. Let's keep our fingers and toes crossed and hope for something to come out of this.

[SKL]

Yes Virginia I think we can maybe all benefit from this in some ways. The medicines that are found beneficial will be in clinical trials to prove their effect on myelin. Safety info has already been established and the medicines will be prescribed off-label, eliminating years of more research to make them available.

[Virginia]

In that case, shouldn't they fast track them through the trials to prove any effect on myelin? Doesn't someone know that there are desperate people out here who are progressing and therefore need this ASAP? However, I guess

[SKL]

Yes I agree the process of clinical trials seems to move at a snail's pace, sometimes taking as much as 10 yrs. before ready for being prescribed to the public. But the great thing about the computer microchip, that Dr. Chan help to design, is that it will eliminate years of searching through the many hundreds of thousands of drugs already FDA approved for safe usage in people. This process of determining which drugs will stimulate growth and repair of myelin on nerve cells, will rapidly screen some drugs or compounds in just 3 or 4 days and then when found, will go soon into a Phase 3 trial. I would say this is a much faster track for getting a drug quickly approved for public use than is commonly followed.

Research must show if there are any side effects triggered by the drugs' artificial stimulation of myelin growth that could be harmful. This aspect has not been researched in the previous FDA approval process. The public must be protected by any unforseen side effects of drugs.