MS Research - Getting in the News - I'll Give It a Try

Multiple sclerosis recently got on the national news – the BBC's 6 o'clock News. Caroline Wyatt, who has long suffered from multiple sclerosis, has been a BBC correspondent for some time. She contracted multiple sclerosis and struggled to be able to fulfil her job requirements. Recently, she undertook HSCT in Mexico. However, she had had multiple sclerosis since 1992. Whether it be as a result of suffering from the condition for so long, or some other variable, and although the treatment initially worked, she eventually returned to her previous state. That said, her brain fog is still much better than it was previously. Ostensibly, though, Wyatt has been a failed responder.

The written BBC article upon which the television news piece was based is a very good read. It can be read here. She details some of her HSCT experiences:

I last wrote about my MS after travelling to Mexico for an autologous stem cell transplant (aHSCT) in 2017. 

Sadly, despite initial improvements, I'm now back to where I was before: slowly but surely getting worse.

The only improvements that have endured are the lifting of some of the crushing brain fog I had before HSCT and less hesitation in my speech.

For both, I am eternally grateful, as they mean I can continue to work at the BBC, in the job I love.

However, I have no idea how long this reprieve will last.

The fatigue that had long been my worst symptom is now back with a vengeance, so that staying awake throughout a busy working day remains a challenge.

That MS fatigue did lift for a few months, and it felt miraculous. I awoke every day refreshed. But then it returned, and I awake after eight full hours fast asleep feeling as if I haven't been to bed at all.

The article mentions recent research into metformin, a bog-standard diabetes drug:

And perhaps most encouraging of all, Prof Robin Franklin and his team at the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute recently published research suggesting a common diabetes drug - metformin - could hold the key to stopping disease progression in MS.

Costing just a few pence per tablet, metformin appears to have an ability to restore cells to a younger, healthier state and encourage myelin regrowth.

The next question is whether it works in people as well as it does in the lab.

Prof Franklin says: "This is a drug that's well tolerated and widely available. There is every reason to believe that the effects that we have seen - which have been so spectacular - will translate into humans.

"This is the great frontier of MS therapy. We're good at stopping the inflammation in MS. What we're not so good at doing is repairing the damage. All this work has given us some real hope that this medicine will reverse the damage done by MS."

I certainly feel rather more hopeful than I did.

I found this quite interesting so I decided to do some research on the Internet. Since metformin seems so standard and benign, I thought I would see if I could get hold of some. Unfortunately, it looks like it is prescription only. However, I did come across a natural alternative called berberine, that appears to do the same thing. In fact, I found some online research to support its use in the treatment of MS:

"The effects of berberine on a murine model of multiple sclerosis and the SPHK1/S1P signaling pathway."

The abstract includes:

We found that treatment with BBR [berberine] reduced the loss of neurophysiological function and the degree of demyelination. Moreover, BBR was associated with a decrease in SphK1 and S1P levels both in the animals and in culture. These results indicated that BBR suppresses demyelination and loss of neurophysiological function by inhibiting the SphK1/S1P signaling pathway. The use of BBR as a treatment of MS warrant further exploration.

And the great thing is that Burberry and appears to be really cheap, comparatively, and very easy to get hold of. So I have ordered a bunch from eBay.

It's really great that MS is getting in the news. It is a condition that many people suffer from, and with the fortune in a weird sense of it being a relatively common condition, this means that there will be much more effort being put into researching cures and treatments for it.