No objections here.

Interestingly, many MSer's already take ALA and tumeric for their potential to help in MS.

Also, there was a small study in a group of MSer's where it was shown that inosine, which raises uric acid levels, may have some beneficial effect in people with MS. They tried this because they noted that virtually no MSer ever got gout which results from high uric acid levels. Their thinking was that nitric oxide may be involved in the pathophysiology of MS and increasing uric acid levels might be good because uric acid scavenges Peroxynitrite which is a product of nitric oxide.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...942&query_hl=2

Neurochem Res. 2005 Jan;30(1):139-49.


Evidence of nitrosative damage in the brain white matter of patients with multiple sclerosis.

Bizzozero OA, DeJesus G, Bixler HA, Pastuszyn A.

Department of Cell Biology and Physiology, University of New Mexico-Health Sciences Center, Basic Medical Sciences Building, 914 Camino de Salud, Albuquerque, NM 87131-5218, USA. obizzozero@salud.unm.edu

Nitric oxide (NO) has been implicated in the pathophysiology of both experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis and multiple sclerosis (MS). NO-mediated protein damage in MS appears to be confined to large plaques where 3-nitrotyrosine has been detected.

To determine whether nitrosative damage takes place beyond visible MS plaques, the occurrence of various NO-triggered protein modifications in normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) of eight MS brains was assessed and compared to that in white matter (WM) of four control brains.

As determined by amino acid analysis and western blotting, no evidence of tyrosine nitration was found in the MS samples studied, suggesting that they did not contain appreciable amounts of plaque-derived material. The amino acid composition of total myelin proteins and proteolipid protein (PLP) was also unaltered in the diseased tissue, as was the fatty acid composition of PLP. In addition, we detected no changes in the number of protein free thiols suggesting that oxidation do not occur to any appreciable extent.

However, the levels of nitrite in MS-NAWM were higher than those in control WM, while in the MS-gray matter (GM) the concentration of this ion was unaltered. Furthermore, five of the MS samples analyzed, and the same as those with high levels of glial fibrilary acidic protein, showed increased amounts of protein nitrosothiols as determined by the "biotin switch" method. S-nitrosation of GM proteins was again normal. There was no indication of N-nitrosation of tryptophan and N-terminal amino groups in both control and MS tissue.

Overall, the data suggests that WM, but not GM, from MS brains is subjected to considerable nitrosative stress. This is the first report to present direct evidence of increased protein S-nitrosation and nitrite content in the brain parenchyma of MS patients.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...=pubmed_docsum

Vojnosanit Pregl.
2006 Oct;63(10):879-82.

Therapeutic value of serum uric acid levels increasing in the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

Toncev G.
Clinical Center Kragujevac, Center of Neurology, Kragujevac, Srbija.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Uric acid was successfully used in both, prevention and treatment of the animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS). Recently it has been shown that inosine, a ribosylated precursor of uric acid, might be used to elevate serum uric acid levels in MS patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of oral inosine as a single drug treatment in patients with MS.

METHOD: We administered inosine orally to 32 MS patients from 2001-2004 year at doses from 1-2 g daily (given twice) depending on the pretreatment serum uric acid levels. The mean follow-up interval was 37.69+/-6.55 months. The other 32 MS patients, without any treatment except for a relapse period (matched by age, sex, duration of disease and functional disability), were used as controls. The follow-up interval of these patients was 36.39 +/- 2.68 months. The neurological disability was evaluated by the Expanded Disability Status Scale score (EDSS).

RESULTS: During the observed period the treated MS patients were found to have the lower relapses rate than the non-treated MS patients (Chi-square test, p = 0.001). None of the patients have showed any adverse effect of inosine treatment. The non-treated MS patients were found to have a higher increasing in the mean EDSS score than the treated ones (two-way ANOVA-repeated measures/factor times, p = 0.025).

CONCLUSION: Our results suggested that the treatment approaches based on the elevation of serum uric acid levels might prove beneficial for some MS patients.

PMID: 17121380 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]