Inexpensive Hypertension Drug Could Be Multiple Sclerosis Treatment

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090817184437.htm

ScienceDaily (Aug. 19, 2009) — Turning serendipity into science, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found a link, in mice and in human brain tissue, between high blood pressure and multiple sclerosis. Their findings suggest that a safe, inexpensive drug already in wide use for high blood pressure may have therapeutic value in multiple sclerosis, as well.

While neurology professor Lawrence Steinman, MD, senior author of the new study, cautioned that extensive clinical trial work is needed to determine if the drug, known as lisinopril, can do in humans what it does in mice, he is excited that "we were able to show that all the targets for lisinopril are there and ready for therapeutic manipulation in the multiple-sclerosis lesions of human patients. Without that, this would be just another intriguing paper about what's possible in the mouse."

The paper will be published online Aug. 17 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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