By LAURIE TARKAN
Published: December 26, 2011
Three years ago, Kristie Salerno Kent, a singer-songwriter, was standing in a security line at the airport on her way home from a gig when her legs went numb. “From the waist down, it felt as though I was trying to walk through a bowl of oatmeal,” said the 38-year-old musician, who has multiple sclerosis.
She inched her way to a security officer, who called for a wheelchair and helped remove her shoes and belt to get her through security. Frightened and embarrassed, she was taken to her gate in a wheelchair.
Three months later, she experienced another flare-up. While giving a live television interview about a short film she had made on living with M.S., she suddenly lost her ability to speak. “It was as if my mouth was packed with marbles,” she said. “I kept trying to say, ‘I’m sorry,’ to the reporter, but nothing came out that made sense.”
The medication she was taking to prevent these attacks was losing its effect, so her doctor suggested she switch to Tysabri, one of the newer, more potent “disease-modifying drugs,” which reduce the severity and frequency of relapses. She also began taking Ampyra, which early last year became the first drug approved to treat any M.S. symptom. She hasn’t had a flare-up since.
After decades of basic research on M.S., the last five years have brought a rapid rollout of new and sophisticated drugs that are changing how this disease is managed and offering patients new hope.
“We have a disease that’s gone from having no treatments 20 years ago to having multiple treatment options,” said Dr. Timothy Coetzee, the chief research officer at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. “There is a growing recognition that M.S. is becoming a manageable disease.”
In M.S., the body’s immune system damages neurons in the brain and spinal cord, attacking the myelin sheath that insulates these nerves. About 85 percent of patients start out with what is called relapsing-remitting M.S., characterized by flare-ups or attacks that cause lesions to form on the brain and that affect the ability to walk, to see and to control the bladder, among other neurological impairments.
These attacks are short-lived, and patients typically recover from them. But more than half of patients eventually develop a progressive form of M.S., causing the permanent loss of these functions.
Once that happens, many of the treatments are ineffective. But the new drugs may slow, perhaps even prevent, the progression that was once considered inevitable for many patients.
“The drugs we now have are shifting what the natural history of the disease looks like,” said Dr. Coetzee.
Doctors can now choose from eight disease-modifying drugs, which reduce relapses and thereby slow the progression of the disease. Some of the drugs also prevent brain neurons from dying off, now thought to be a major cause of permanent disability.
There have also been advances in treating specific symptoms of M.S. Within the past two years, three medications have been approved specifically for M.S. symptoms: Ampyra to improve walking, Nuedexta for uncontrollable laughing or crying, and Botox for urinary incontinence and spasticity in upper limbs.
“We’re shooting for disease-free status, where someone with M.S. is on a medicine and has no sign of M.S.,” said Dr. Richard Rudick, director of theMellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research at the Cleveland Clinic.
The first generation of M.S. drugs included mostly immune-suppressing interferons delivered via injection or infusion. These are still the most widely used, reducing relapses by about one-third. The new drugs are more sophisticated, targeting specific molecules involved in the disease, rather than simply tamping down the immune system to reduce inflammation in the brain.
Just last year, the first oral drug for M.S., Gilenya, gained approval with data showing it cut the relapse rate by 55 percent. Gilenya causes inflammatory cells called lymphocytes to get trapped in lymph nodes so they don’t travel to the brain, where they would damage neurons.
Patients need to be monitored for several potentially serious side effects, including a slowed heart rate and liver and vision problems. One patient recently died 24 hours after starting on Gilenya; the Food and Drug Administration is investigating the cause of the death.
The most potent drug, Tysabri, reduces the relapse rate by about 70 percent, but it comes with a small risk of a fatal brain infection caused by a common virus. Patients may be screened for antibodies to the virus; the risk of infection is considered quite low in those with no sign of the antibodies, and they are given the drug.
At least four other drugs with different mechanisms are in Phase 3 clinical trials and could win approval within the next year, experts say. Some work by protecting nerves from damage.
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