Major step towards treating multiple sclerosis as trials show drug reverses effects of disease

Doctors yesterday hailed a major success in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, after trials revealed that a drug had halted and reversed the debilitating effects of the disease for the first time.The unprecedented results will boost the hopes of thousands of people in Britain in the early stages of the condition, which destroys the central nervous system.Existing medications, such as beta interferon, at best slow the disease, which causes the immune system mistakenly to attack fatty coatings around nerves that are needed to make sure signals are passed down them properly.Doctors at Cambridge University led a three-year trial of the drug, alemtuzumab, to compare its effectiveness against the market-leading beta interferon treatment. They recruited 334 patients with MS in their 20s and 30s, all of whom had experienced their first symptoms no more than three years ago.Patients who were given the new drug were 74% less likely to relapse and...

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