summary: Glatiramer acetate (GA) is one of the accepted treatments for relapsing-remitting MS. However, not all people have a satisfactory response to it. For this reason, new therapeutic approaches are being investigated. Minocycline is an oral treatment which had been previously tested in MS and shown to be effective in reducing the number of active MRI lesions, in an uncontrolled trial (without placebo group) published in 2004. The authors of this study aimed to investigate the efficacy of combined GA plus minocycline treatment in people with relapsing-remitting MS, by comparing a group receiving GA plus minocycline with another receiving GA plus placebo. They found that the group that received GA plus minocycline had a trend towards a reduction on the lesion load and number of active lesions compared to the group only receiving GA (plus placebo). The authors conclude the article suggesting the need for further study of this combination treatment.

authors: Metz LM, Li D, Traboulsee A, Myles ML, Duquette P, Godin J, Constantin M, Yong VW

source: Mult Scler. 2009 Sep 23

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