Study shows potential of Pfizer’s Lipitor in MS

Scientists from the University of California and Stanford University looked at the use of the statin Lipitor in combination with Teva Pharmaceutical’s Copaxone, a drug already approved for treating MS.

The researchers say that the drugs worked synergistically, preventing or diminishing paralysis in mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a model disease that closely resembles multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis causes a variety of neurological symptoms including loss of motor control, visual loss or imbalance. A primary symptom is temporary, recurring paralysis in the limbs, as occurs in the mice.

In the first step of the study, 10 mice were given the combination therapy prior to their immunization with the protein that induces EAE. Of these, only three developed paralysis, and their symptoms were very mild. In addition, the central nervous system tissue of these animals had substantially fewer destructive inflammatory lesions.

In contrast, all of the EAE “control” mice – those that received either no drug or suboptimal doses of Lipitor or Copaxone – developed the full-blown disease.

In the second step of the study, involving 10 mice with established EAE, the combination therapy dramatically lessened the clinical and histological signs of the disease. The animals were essentially free of paralysis, they had reduced inflammation in the central nervous system, and decreased destruction of the myelin sheath, which insulates the nerves and is the target of destruction in MS.

There was no reversal of the disease in mice that received either no drug or suboptimal doses of Lipitor or Copaxone.