10/15/2006 5:55 AM
By: Ivanhoe Newswire

http://rdu.news14.com/content/health_and_fitness/?ArID=92413&SecID=376

LOS ANGELES -- About half a million Americans are living with multiple sclerosis, a serious disease where the body attacks the nervous system. It's about three-times more common in women, but men can also get MS. Now, a new treatment could help men with the disease feel better and stay more alert.

Jeffrey Steenberg loves the outdoors, whether it's jogging or caring for his homemade garden. But when doctors diagnosed him with multiple sclerosis four years ago, even the simple tasks became exhausting. "Just finding myself extremely tired a lot," he says. "I couldn't make it through a day without napping."

And like about half of all MS patients, Steenberg also had memory problems. He says, "I definitely noticed some of the memory going -- calling somebody immediately after calling them and not knowing who was on the phone anymore."

Neurologist Rhonda Voskuhl, M.D., of the UCLA School of Medicine, says there's no treatment to protect patients from memory failure. "What we don't have are drugs that would be going to the brain or spinal cord and protecting those nerves," she explained.

		WATCH THE VIDEO
	Gel for MS memory loss About half a million Americans are living with multiple sclerosis, a serious disease where the body attacks the nervous system.

Now, testosterone gel may do just that. In a small study, 10 men with MS applied it to their shoulders once a day for a year.

"What they reported most is that they felt better -- that they had more energy and less fatigue," Dr. Voskuhl says. The gel improved their immune systems and all the patients performed better on memory tests.

MRI scans also showed parts of the brain that normally decline in MS actually slowed.

"We're excited about these findings because we're actually would be describing the first neural protective drugs for MS," Dr. Voskuhl says.

She says researchers would most likely use an estrogen to treat women in the future. The next step is a larger clinical trial involving more men. If the gel proves to improve memory, it could also be used on patients with Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. A side effect of testosterone is it can worsen prostate cancer in patients who already have it.

Jeffrey noticed a positive difference. He says, "The increased energy and mental alertness were the biggest changes for me."

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

If you would like more information, please contact:

Ricki Klutch, R.N.
UCLA School of Medicine
710 Westwood Plaza
RNRC A125
Los Angeles, CA
(310) 825-7313
rklutch@ucla.edu

	Research Summary
BACKGROUND: About one in every 1,000 Americans is living with multiple sclerosis. It's a serious disease that happens when the immune cells in the body attack the nervous system. As a result, paralysis, blindness or other symptoms can occur depending on where the attack happens. MS is about three-times more common in women, but men can also get the disease. COGNITIVE PROBLEMS: About half of all patients with MS will experience cognitive problems at some point. These problems may be subtler than what patients with Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia may experience, but they can still impact everyday life. Rhonda Voskuhl, M.D., a neurologist from UCLA School of Medicine, says: "Currently, there are no treatments for the cognitive problems that occur in MS. There are no direct treatments that will protect you. The real need is for something that's directly neural-protective, meaning a drug that is shown to go directly to the brain and protect cells from dying." SEARCHING FOR A TREATMENT: Since women are more likely than men to have MS, Dr. Voskuhl and colleagues wondered what could be protecting men from getting the disease. Through their research, they discovered that men often develop MS at a later age than women. She says: "Men were getting MS at about age 40, and interestingly, this age is a time when testosterone has actually declined. So, it begins to decline about 1 percent to 2 percent per year at around age 30. So, we were thinking that maybe the testosterone has been protective." The researchers concluded that testosterone may serve to protect the nerve cells that are damaged by the autoimmune attack on myelin that occurs in MS and maintaining cognitive ability (the ability to think, reason, concentrate or remember). GEL RESTORES MEMORY: Dr. Voskuhl and colleagues took their discovery a step further and tested a testosterone patch on men with multiple sclerosis. In a pilot study, 10 men with relapsing-remitting MS received daily treatment with 100 milligrams of a testosterone gel. The gel was applied to the skin for one year. Clinical assessments including cognitive measures and blood tests were conducted every three months, and magnetic resonance images (MRIs) were reviewed monthly. Results of the study showed blood tests revealed that the production of a growth factor that helps promote nerve cell survival increased by more than two-fold after testosterone supplementation. Also, the rate of brain atrophy slowed by 67 percent during the last nine months of testosterone treatment. All the patients also had improvements in how their immune systems functioned, and they all performed better on a memory test. "We're excited about these findings because we would actually be describing for the first time a neural-protective drug for MS, which would be quite a huge issue," Dr. Voskuhl says. FUTURE STUDIES: Dr. Voskuhl says the next step is to conduct a larger study with more men. If the gel is proven effective, it could also be used on patients with Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's. She says these findings could also help women in the future. Researchers would most likely study an estrogen to treat women with MS.