Could Multiple Sclerosis Drugs Fight AIDS?

Multiple sclerosis and AIDS are basically opposite diseases. In multiple sclerosis, the body attacks its own cells, the immune system is a little too aggressive. HIV and AIDS is essentially the opposite problem - the immune system breaks down because of HIV.

It looks like the two diseases may share a common treatment path. In exploratory research, scientists found that fingolimod, an MS drug being developed by Novartis AG, eliminated viral infections in mice. The drug boasted the mice's anti-viral capabilities and destroyed a virus that causes meningitis.

This is a bit weird because fingolimod is a drug that suppresses the immune system, in part by trap white blood cells in the lymph nodes. Many viruses (including HIV) concentrate in the lymph nodes. The combination of the immune cell trapping by fingolimod and the higher concentrations may result in an improved ability to fight viruses.

It is still say too soon to know how this approach to fighting viruses may work in humans, but it does open another pathway that may lead to additional treatment tools for fighting AIDS.

More inforamtion on this study can be foudn inthe journal Nature in an article authored by John Altman of Emory Unversity.