Wednesday, July 6, 2016

New plant-derived oral drug can prevent progression of multiple sclerosis


Starr 030523-0123 Hedyotis corymbosa.jpg



Image result for Oldenlandia affinis   

An international research team has demonstrated that a new plant-derived drug can block the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS).

University of Queensland researcher Dr Christian Gruber said the breakthrough could be a step forward in preventing and treating MS and other autoimmune diseases.

"This is a really exciting discovery because it may offer a whole new quality of life for people with this debilitating disease," he said.

The new drug is expected to be taken by mouth, in contrast to some current MS treatments where patients need to have frequent injections.

MS is a chronic incurable condition marked by attacks that bring gradual deterioration in the patient's health. About 23,000 people are affected in Australia and 2.5 million worldwide.

Dr Gruber said the new drug -- named T20K -- was extracted from a traditional medicinal plant, the Oldenlandia affinis.

The drug treatment had been successful in an animal model, and patent applications filed in several countries.

"Phase one clinical trials could begin as early as 2018," Dr Gruber said.

"Licences have been assigned to Cyxone, a company established last year to develop this new class of drugs for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.

"Cyxone's immediate focus is on bringing T20K through the pre-clinical program required for delivering a safe, orally active drug."

Dr Gruber said the new treatment arose from a synthesised plant peptide, a class of drugs known as cyclotides.

"Cyclotides are present in a range of common plants, and they show significant potential for the treatment of auto immune diseases," he said.

"The T20K peptides exhibit extraordinary stability and chemical features that are ideally what you want in an oral drug candidate."


New plant-derived oral drug can prevent progression of multiple sclerosis: An international research team has demonstrated that a new plant-derived drug can block the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS).

1 comment:

Daniel Lan said...

Been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2015, and I was a woman of 50. They put me on Rebif which I took until 2017 and was switched to Copaxone. I had two relapses on Rebif, none so far on Copaxone. I do notice my balance was getting worse, and my memory, i had no choice to sick for other solution and I was introduce to multivitamincare .org which I purchase the MS herbal formula from the org, the herbal supplement has successfully  get rid of my multiple sclerosis and reversed all symptoms after using the herbs as the Dr said , this is almost a miracle and do believe multivitamincare .org herbal cure will be recognize globally because am sure the world are yet to see their wonderful work.