Mar 26, 2009 5:57 pm US/Eastern
MS Drug Reduces Pain & Inflammation For Patients
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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Although there is no cure for multiple sclerosis, patients can get relief from their symptoms with injectable medications.
Although there is no cure for multiple sclerosis, patients can get relief from their symptoms with injectable medications.
Healthwatch reporter Kellye Lynn reports doctors in Baltimore are investigating a drug that can improve a patient's symptoms without the pain of a needle.
The drug is for patients who have relapsing remitting MS, a condition that affects at least 50 percent of patients who have the disease.
Anna Gearhart is one of those people. Since learning she had MS in 2000, her symptoms have come and gone.
"Right now, I'm not having many physical symptoms because the medication I've been on has been really effective," she said.
Most MS patients rely on daily injections or monthly infusions to manage their disease.
Researchers at the University of Maryland Medical Center say this medication reduces symptoms without the stick of a needle.
"As soon as I found out there was an oral drug, that was the best news I ever heard," said Gearhart.
In MS, the body's immune system attacks the central nervous system creating inflammation and ultimately nerve damage along the spinal cord and brain.
Patients are left with numbness, loss of balance and pain. Laquinimod is a once a day oral medication that targets inflammation.
"You can decrease the symptoms that patients develop and over time decrease the progression of disability," said Dr. Walter Royal.
Although Anna isn't taking Laquinimod, she's taking another oral medication for MS. Without the daily injections, her quality of life has significantly improved.
"The medicine seems to be working. My only hope in the future would be that maybe somebody could come up with a cure for MS," she said.
If the results of the study prove successful, the medication could be on the market in three to five years.
Researchers are testing Laquinimod on patients between the ages of 18 and 55.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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