SAN DIEGO, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- A drug commonly used to treat breast cancer and an established arthritis medication show promise in treating Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's disease, researchers said Monday.
Both medications stall the development of muscle weakness associated with progression of the debilitating illness.
The findings were presented at the Society for Neuroscience's Annual Meeting in San Diego.
The drug nolvadex, also known as tamoxifen, may control the degeneration of motor neurons typified by ALS. Scientists at University of Wisconsin-Madison discovered the drug's benefit when they observed a breast cancer patient who received tamoxifen appeared to function well when she later developed Lou Gehrig's disease.
The patient's progress piqued the interest of brain researcher Dr. Benjamin Brooks who began to study the impact of tamoxifen on mice with a Lou Gehrig's disease-like syndrome. He found the drug significantly delayed the progression of symptoms in the mice and prolonged their survival by nearly double the usual prognosis.
The encouraging results have fast-tracked tamoxifen for testing on Lou Gehrig's patients and Brooks is currently recruiting patients for a Phase I clinical trial.
Approximately 30,000 Americans suffer from Lou Gehrig's disease, an incurable adult-onset illness that leaves patients' mental powers intact but slowly destroys their ability to control their own bodies. The rapid physical decline and death associated with the disease, brought to the forefront by New York Yankees baseball star Lou Gehrig, occurs because the body kills off motor neurons.
A second study found the commonly used arthritis drug celecoxib (sold as Celebrex) is one of the most potent orally administered agents to work in mice with Lou Gehrig's symptoms. Researchers from John's Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., said the medication extended the life of all 40 mice studied by four weeks and showed no adverse side effects.
The findings are encouraging because the only drug approved by the Food and Drug administration for Lou Gehrig's patients increases survival by only two weeks in mice, said lead author Dr. Jeffrey Rothstein.
"The findings indicate that a clinical trial of celecoxib in ALS patients is warranted," Rothstein said. "This is a drug that's already on the market and accessible to people with the disease."
Two other studies by University of South Florida researchers in Tampa and the Johns Hopkins University team suggest the best therapy for the disease will likely involve both drug treatment and a cell transplantation technique.
Both teams studied transplantation of healthy neurons into the brains and spinal cords of mice and monkeys respectively. The USF researchers found transplantation delayed the progression of movement deterioration in mice while the JHU team noted the same benefit in monkeys.
"While preliminary, these results suggest that cell transplantation may help treat ALS in humans and improve their quality of life," said USF lead author Dr. Allison Willing.
