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The first medicine for multiple sclerosis appeared in the world
Last reviewed: 30.05.2018
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Experts from Australia said that they managed to develop a drug that will help heal multiple sclerosis. The new drug was called WEHI-345 and, according to scientists, can prevent the progression of the disease in half the cases.
This remedy has become a real breakthrough in medicine, since WEHI-345 can help to get rid of the disease completely (until now there is no cure for multiple sclerosis).
After numerous experiments, experts noted that the drug helps prevent further progression of the disease, if you start it immediately after the appearance of the first symptoms. In this case, according to the researchers, the drug is suitable, both for the treatment of an already progressive disease, and for preventive purposes.
The scientific group is going to continue further study of the drug. The specialists intend to finalize WEHI-345, as well as its analogues. Studies have shown that in 50% of cases after the application of a new drug the progression of multiple sclerosis slowed (or completely stopped).
It is worth noting that with multiple sclerosis affects myelin in the nervous system. Until now, the disease was considered incurable, and there were no effective medicines for it.
The disease causes the destruction of myelin, of which the envelope of nerve fibers consists. Such fibers are found throughout the central system, and the damage to the envelope causes various neurological disorders.
People consider sclerosis a disease of the elderly, a senile loss of memory. However, this disease is autoimmune and has nothing to do with the age-related changes and absent-mindedness observed in the elderly.
Multiple sclerosis is characterized by numerous scars throughout the central nervous system (hence the name - scattered). During the study of the disease, it was established that sclerosis foci (scars or plaques) are found throughout the central nervous system, without a clear location. With multiple sclerosis, the replacement of the natural connective nerve tissue begins (ie scarring). The first time the disease was described in 1868 by a French psychiatrist Jean-Martin Charcot.
People who are young and middle-aged are subject to illness (16 - 45 years). A characteristic feature of the disease is that several parts of the nervous system are affected at once (often different), which causes neurologic symptoms in patients (impaired swallowing function, gait, balance, speech, vision, trembling, fecal and urinary incontinence, muscle spasm, fatigue, depressive state, increased susceptibility of heat).
With the progression of the disease at the site of destruction of the myelin sheath, plaques ranging in size from 1 mm to several centimeters are formed, in time several plaques can merge with each other, forming a large lesion.
One patient is diagnosed during a special examination of plaques, both newly formed and "old".