Small Study Suggests Possible Benefit for Skin Patch to Reduce Immune Activity in Multiple Sclerosis

Jul 09, 2013

Polish researchers reported results of a small clinical trial in which a skin patch containing myelin peptides (portions of the substance that insulates nerve fibers and is a target of the immune attack on the brain and spinal cord in MS) were administered to 20 people with relapsing-remitting MS via a skin patch, resulting in significant reductions in disease activity on imaging scans and relapses, compared with 10 people given an inactive placebo patch. Over one year, the treatment was found to be safe and well tolerated. Further studies in larger numbers of people are necessary to determine whether this method has potential as a safe and effective treatment approach for people with MS. Agata Walczak, MD, PhD, and Krzysztof Selmaj, MD, PhD (University of Lodz, Poland) and colleagues report their findings in JAMA Neurology (Published online July 1, 2013).

Background: In MS, immune cells called T cells attack and destroy myelin, the substance that protects nerve fibers, and cause other damage in the brain and spinal cord. These attacks lead to clinical symptoms. In people who don’t have MS, these T cells do not attack myelin because it is recognized as part of their own body, and their immune systems are trained to be “tolerant” to myelin and so do not attack it. One goal in MS therapy is to selectively restore normal tolerance to one’s own myelin, leaving the rest of the immune system intact.  In previous studies, researchers have administered a myelin protein (myelin basic protein) orally to mice with EAE, an MS-like disease, and succeeded in suppressing disease, but a clinical trial of this approach involving people with MS was not successful.

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