A new study in England and Scotland will test existing off the shelf drugs on secondary progressive MS. Established drugs in stroke, motor neurone disease and asthma will be trailed among approximately 500 people to investigate if they can slow down disability progression.
The MS-SMART trail will focus on those between 25-65 who are not on a disease modifying therapies and can walk 20 metres, aided, or 500 metres unaided.
The drugs being tested are currently licensed and have an established safety profile. Amiloride is licensed to treat heart disease, ibudilast to treat asthma in Japan and riluzole is licensed for motor neurone disease). Having pervious data and clinical experience of the drugs will shorten trail time considerably.
This is an exciting avenue of research as there are no current drug treatments for progressive forms of MS as disease modifying therapies focus on the inflammation mechanism associated with relapsing-remitting MS.
Read more about the trail at their dedicated website http://www.ms-smart.org/