Blood pressure drug 'may prevent MS'

Multiple sclerosis (MS) affects thousands of people in the UK and can be a crippling disease in its later and severe stages, particularly as one of the main treatments is regular exercise, rather than a traditional drug.

However, there may now be hope for MS sufferers after medical experts discovered that a drug commonly used to treat high blood pressure may be effective in alleviating the pain of the nerve condition.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California have conducted tests on mice which reveal that the widely-circulated and inexpensive drug lisinopril has the potential to halt the progression of MS in healthcare insurance customers.

Neurology professor Dr Lawrence Steinman, senior author of the new study, first established a link several years ago when he noticed a possible connection between MS and a fast-acting hormone called angiotensin, which causes blood vessels to constrict.

"That raises your blood pressure so when you stand up to get out of a chair, you don't fall down and faint," he explained.

However, as this drug also reduced inflammation, one of the key triggers of MS, the expert began to conduct tests on mice which revealed that the medication's healing properties are applicable to both conditions.

The results may have very positive implications for those with health insurance suffering from MS, he stated.

"We were able to show that all the targets for lisinopril are there and ready for therapeutic manipulation in the multiple sclerosis lesions of human patients," Dr Steinman observed.

As people in temperate climates such as the UK are generally more at risk of developing MS than those in tropical climes, this drug may now provide widespread health benefits to British sufferers.

Marc Feldmann, an Imperial College London immunologist, said the results have "major public health implications".

"If multiple sclerosis patients can be treated with lisinopril at something like one percent of the price of treatment with Tysabri, then far more patients will receive adequate therapy, at a substantially lower cost to those paying for it," he theorised.

By James McCann

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