New Treatment for MS May Be Found in Old Medicine

An antioxidant designed by scientists more than 12 years ago to fight damage within human cells has been used to significantly improve symptoms of mice with a multiple sclerosis-like disease. Researchers suggest that the discovery could lead to an entirely new way to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) in humans.

The antioxidant - known as MitoQ - has shown some promise in fighting neurodegenerative diseases, but this is the first time it has been used to significantly reverse an MS-like disease in an animal, according to the researchers behind the discovery, who published their findings in the journal Biochimica et Biophysica Acta Molecular Basis of Disease.

Researchers from Oregon Health and Science University led the research, which involved allowing mice to contract a disease called experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, or EAE, which is very similar to MS in humans.

The researchers separated the mice into four groups: a group with EAE only; a group that was given the EAE, then treated with the MitoQ; a third group that was given the MitoQ first, then given the EAE; and a fourth "control" group of mice without EAE and without any other treatment.

After two weeks, the EAE-infected mice that had been treated with MitoQ showed signs of EAE symptom reversal including reduced inflammatory markers and increased neuronal activity in the spinal cord. The mice also showed reduced loss of nerve fibers and reduced neurological disabilities associated with the EAE.

Mice pre-treated with the MitoQ showed the least problems. The mice that had been treated with MitoQ after EAE also showed many fewer problems than mice who were just induced to get the EAE and then given no treatment.

"The MitoQ also significantly reduced inflammation of the neurons and reduced demyelination," said P. Hemachandra Reddy, an associate scientist in the Division of Neuroscience at OHSU's Oregon National Primate Research Center. "These results are really exciting. This could be a new front in the fight against MS."

As the researchers move forward in future tests, they are at an advantage because MitoQ has already been approved for a variety of clinical trials in humans.

MitoQ has been extensively researched, and it is known for its ability to decrease oxidative damage in mitochondria.

"It appears that MitoQ enters neuronal mitochondria quickly, scavenges free radicals, reduces oxidative insults produced by elevated inflammation, and maintains or even boosts neuronal energy in affected cells," said Reddy, who added that outside of MS, the antioxidant could one day be used for treatment in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.