The study is to be published tomorrow in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study was sponsored by Cambridge, Mass.-based Biogen Inc., a biotechnology firm that sells the drug Avonex, used in the trial. Avonex is commonly used for MS patients but has not been prescribed so early. Multiple sclerosis affects about 350,000 people in the United States, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Women are two to three times more likely to be affected than men.
The disease is characterized by symptoms such as blurred or weakened vision, weakness in the fingers and toes, numbness and imbalance. It sometimes progresses to the point where patients are partially paralyzed and wheelchair-dependent. Scientists have found that symptoms are caused by the destruction of the myelin sheath that covers nerve fibers akin to the breakdown of the insulation of a telephone wire. This disrupts the transmission of messages within the nervous system and increases the risk of damage to the underlying nerves. Piecing together a diagnosis of MS from early symptoms can be difficult since they are common to other conditions and sometimes go away.