Minocycline Fights MS

Researchers in Germany and at the University of Wisconsin have reported that minocycline either blocks the disease or lessens the severity of symptoms when used to treat laboratory rats afflicted with the animal equivalent to MS. In an article in Annals of Neurology, they reported on study results from four groups of rats, two of which received doses of the protein that causes autoimmune encephalomyelitis and two control groups, all of which were treated with minocycline. Whether the rats were treated before or at the onset of the disease, the minocycline lessened the severity of symptoms and blocked relapses. Later, it was found to have protected both the myelin sheaths and the nerve fibers in the rats' brains. Earlier, Finnish studies of stroke patients had shown that minocycline stopped the activation of microglial cells which patrol the brain and respond to immune events and are known culprits in MS and other nerve diseases.