Asthma drug albuterol may also benefit patients with multiple sclerosis

Adding albuterol, a compound commonly used to treat asthma and other respiratory diseases and the active ingredient of now off-patent Ventolin from GlaxoSmithKline, to an existing treatment for patients with multiple sclerosis - Copaxone (glatiramer acetate from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries - appears to improve clinical outcomes, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by the degeneration of myelin, which coats nerve cells in the white matter of the central nervous system. Patients with the condition have been found to have elevated levels of interleukin-12, a biological compound that promotes the generation of a type of helper T cell that may be associated with myelin destruction.

Albuterol sulphate - commonly used to treat bronchospasm, a constriction of the airways within the lungs as often occurs in asthma - may decrease interleukin-12 levels, the authors note. Samia Khoury, of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, and colleagues assessed the effects of albuterol treatment as an add-on therapy for patients starting treatment with glatiramer acetate, currently approved as a therapy for relapsing-remitting MS.