A new drug might cure a multiple sclerosis

Pharmaceutical companies Servier and GeNeuro seem to have made a medical breakthrough. They published preliminary results of a clinical trial of a new drug, GNbAC1, designed to help people with remission-relapsing multiple sclerosis (RRS), Remedium reports.

First, the drug was well tolerated by volunteers. But there is an ambiguity regarding the brain. On the one hand, the number of new lesions and foci of inflammation in the brain has not reduced but, on the other hand, the number of relapses has decreased by more than 50%.

In total, 270 people with RRS have participated in the trial. The primary endpoint for a 6-month period is the evaluation of effectiveness of the drug GNbAC1 based on the number of inflammatory lesions detected with MRI of the brain. Secondary endpoints for a 12-month period also include the evaluation of neurodegeneration by using MRI, clinical parameters and biomarkers.

Final conclusions should be announced in the first quarter of next year. It is known that GNbAC1 is a monoclonal antibody that neutralizes the envelope protein of pathogenic virus pHERV-W, encoded by retrovirus genes of HERV-W family. These are endogenous retroviruses that integrate their DNA into human DNA. They make about 8% of the human genome. It is believed that the envelope protein of pathogenic human retrovirus, pHERV-W, is a factor that causes multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes.

Source: "Remedium".