A trial is beginning at St. Thomas Hospital in London to find out if fatty acids from certain plants and fungi have the same effect on humans as on animals. Disease in rats with an MS-like condition, when fed purified forms of these fatty acids, was altered and did not develop. St. Thomas thinks that certain fatty acids work by dampening down damaging effects to the immune system. He has written widely on nutritional approaches to medical care. Known as RTX, the medication inhibits the transmission of messages from the peripheral to the central nervous system by desensitizing overactive sensory neurons.
Administration is by a catheter procedure in a doctor's office.
The response rate among the vaccine-treated patients was double that of those on placebo. The vaccine is thought to induce a response against the T-cells which cause the inflammation and destruction of myelin. The company plans to continue this research. When mice with the MS-imitating disease experimental allergic encephalomyelitis were injected with uric acid, weakness and paralysis were reduced. Uric acid occurs naturally in the blood and inactivates a compound suspected of playing a part in demylination.