Medically Reviewed On: May 28, 2004
By Christine Haran
Approximately 25 million Americans take cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins to lower their risk of heart attack and stroke, making these pills almost as popular as aspirin. Researchers have long hoped that statins would also prove as versatile as aspirin—and a new study showing that they may help treat the neurological disease multiple sclerosis (MS) suggests this idea is more than wishful thinking.
In the study, published in the May 15th issue of the British journal The Lancet , researchers gave 30 MS patients the statin drug simvastatin (Zocor). Researchers measured brain lesions that are characteristic of MS with an MRI at the beginning of the study and after three, four and six months of treatment. Of the 28 patients who remained in the study, 23 experienced a 44 percent reduction in the number of lesions after six months. Since there were no patients in the study that were not on the drug, no comparison to placebo could be drawn. MS symptoms such as muscle weakness, spasticity and fatigue were not measured in this study.
"This outcome suggests simvastatin was as effective as any known drugs for multiple sclerosis," said study author Iderjit Singh, PhD, the director of the neurogenetics program at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.
While it's not understood precisely how statins treat MS, Dr. Singh said that statins have an anti-inflammatory effect that may slow the progression of this disease in which immune cells attack the myelin coating that protects the body's nerves. Test tube and animal studies indicate that statins block the formation of inflammatory cells and protect the brain from being infiltrated by immune cells that would break down myelin.
Dr. Singh emphasized that the study results were preliminary and that MS patients should only take statins for MS if they are enrolled in a clinical trial. "These study findings are hopeful for MS and many other neuro-inflammatory disease," he said. "But it's not proven yet."
An upcoming two-year phase II study that will look at the impact of simvastatin on MS symptoms and quality of life may help provide people living with MS with more evidence—and eventually another treatment option.