Aug 28 : Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have identified a specific form of estrogen may hold hope as a potential drug for multiple sclerosis (MS).

The boffins conducted the study on a mouse model and found that the ‘designer estrogen’ not only helps protect the brain from degeneration, but at the same time also not increase the risk for estrogen-induced cancers.

They are also hopeful that it may prove to be a potential drug for multiple sclerosis (MS).

The UCLA findings are significant because while people with MS have many choices for anti-inflammatory drugs to help prevent flare-ups of their physical symptoms, no medication exists to stop the disorder from causing degeneration of the brain and spinal cord.

This form of estrogen also offers a new weapon for combating brain degeneration caused by Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrig’s disease, spinal cord injury and even normal aging.

The study was carried out by Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl, Jack H. Skirball Chair in Multiple Sclerosis Research and professor of neurology; and Seema Tiwari-Woodruff, assistant professor of neurology, both from the UCLA Multiple Sclerosis Program at the David Geffen School of Medicine.

Supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the study appears in the Aug. 27 – 31 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (ANI)

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