*MS Article*-Vitamin to help MS?

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Vitamins Treat MS?

http://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=14531

Reported September 20, 2006

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A form of vitamin B3 could one day help men and

women stricken with severe multiple sclerosis. A new study reveals the

vitamin disrupts the process of nerve fiber destruction caused by an

MS-like disease in mice.

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston tested the treatment on mice

with experimental autoimmune encephalitis a disease that mirrors MS in

humans. Mice treated with nicotinamide, a form of vitamin B3, were not

as likely to suffer the same degeneration of nerve fibers mice not

treated with the vitamin suffered.

Researchers report mice given a daily injection of the drug developed

symptoms later than mice not given the drug.

These findings are important, report the researchers, because it is one

of the first studies to look into protection of axons -- the nerve

fibers. These fibers are usually protected by a myelin sheath. MS strips

that sheath away, leaving the axon exposed and vulnerable. The

autoimmune response of people with MS degenerates those exposed axons,

but nicotinamide seems to slow that process.

Current therapies address the myelin sheath destruction and inflammation

but not damage to the nerve fibers.

The researchers say this study is a step toward a treatment for men and

women suffering from the chronic progressive phase of MS for which there

is not an effective treatment.

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SOURCE: The Journal of Neuroscience, 2006;26:00-00