CALGARY – Researchers at the University of Calgary are now enrolling patients with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) for a clinical trial that will test whether a Parkinson’s disease drug can help slow the progression of MS.
The study, announced last year, will involve 62 patients from the Calgary MS Clinic who are beginning to experience permanent disability but are still able to walk.
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The drug, domperidone, is currently used to treat nausea and constipation associated with Parkinson’s disease.
“It has one very well known side effect in that it increases the level of a certain hormone in the blood called prolactin and there is evidence to show that prolactin is helpful in the repair of myelin. If myelin is breaking down the nerve cell doesn’t work as well and that is part of the problem in multiple sclerosis,” said Dr. Marcus Koch, a researcher with the University of Calgary’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute.
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