The neuro I see locally is a big proponent of Copaxone, and had told me that he had seen research showing that it could help with remyelination. I haven't seen him in a while, and I don't know where he saw this research. When I mentioned this to the MS specialist at Mayo, he outright scoffed. Does anyone have any knowledge on this?

He must have a lot of stock in copaxone!!

Is this the same one who told you that you didn't have MS? LOL

Wouldn't it be great if there actually was a med that lead to remyelination? I know that there has been on going research to develop such a drug, but I don't think they are too close meeting that goal.

It sounds like you need another neuro, unless there's some new study that just came out. There have been some past studies showing this effect in mice who were given copaxone. I am not aware of any study demonstrating this effect in people.

I haven't seen anything on remyelation in humans either. Is your neuro getting paid by the Copaxone stockholders?

Maybe he is! For all I know. The copaxone believer is my local neuro, not the one from Mayo who told me I don't have MS. Sadly, he is the best MS neuro within a 3 hour drive. Which is why I went to Mayo - only to be blown off.

The internist from Mayo who saw me first had a videoconference with me today. He saw the MRI reports they did that show findings consistent with MS, and started trying to contact the neuro to find out WTH? He wanted to "confer" with him before our video appt, but the neuro is out of the office on bereavement and won't be back until next week. I'll be curious to see what he has to say.

As a Copaxone user for nearly 3 years, I try to follow the work that's being done, and I've never seen any mention of Copaxone as promoting remyelination.

Work is being done on myelin repair but I don't think there's any drug available at present that will fix the damaged myelin.

I have never heard of that, either. I was told that Copaxone "tricks" the cells into sticking onto it rather than myelin.

I'd love to see the research that backs up his theory...

I did a google search and found several scholarly articles where Copaxone, both alone and in combination with B12, appeared to aid in limited remyelination in mice.

There is currently a clinical trial being conducted to see if this also is applicable in MS patients.

*mindful that drug effects in mice with EAS does not always mirror that in humans with MS

PS- also wonder why your neuro thinks he can magically see into the future. In all seriousness, Coapxone has been used for a very long time and many people are happy on it - as are others on other medications.

The bigger question is: What do you want to do?

There are a number of articles on Medline concerning Copaxone but here is one that popped out:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24934599

I haven't heard of this. I'm sure if it was well documented and true, all of us MSers would be on Copaxone. Neuros wouldn't even consider any of the other DMDs.