Mass spectrometry helps ID two MS drugs

There's a new target for drug developers focused on multiple sclerosis--and a pair of approved drugs that may already work against the disease. Using mass spectrometry, a team of researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine were able to inventory more than 2,500 proteins in the brain tissue samples taken from six people who had suffered from multiple sclerosis. They were able to narrow the list to five proteins that played a role in blood coagulation--a new pathway in the progression of the disease--that were all present in a single type of brain lesion called chronic active plaque.

To put their theory to the test, scientists used drugs that targeted two of the proteins--Hirulog and Xigris--in an experiment with mice. Paralyzed by an MS-like disease, the mice were able to walk after treatment. One of the big challenges of the disease, said Patricia O'Looney, vice president of biomedical research at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, is that it takes different routes courses in different patients, spurring variable symptoms.

- read the report in The Washington Post

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