Do MS therapy trials now, researcher urges

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Protesters urge speedy action on the so-called liberation therapy in Ottawa earlier this year.

SASKATOON — Clinical trials of the controver­sial liberation treatment for multiple sclerosis should happen immediately, says a former Univer­sity of Saskatchewan researcher who proposed an eerily similar theory more than a decade ago.

Bernhard Juurlink published a hypothesis in 1998 that MS is related to decreased blood flow in the brain and spinal cord.

"It was very difficult to get anyone interested in this idea — the idea was easily testable by, for example, looking for blood flow in white matter in MS patients," Juurlink said in an interview this week. "I tried to first interest clinical colleagues to image brains of MS and non-MS patients, to look at blood flow, with no success."

Last year, Italian vascular surgeon Dr. Paolo Zamboni proposed that narrowed or blocked veins in the neck are related to MS and inflating the veins with a balloon angioplasty procedure can al­leviate symptoms.

The procedure isn’t available in Canada be­cause it hasn’t been scientifically validated, but Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has called for clinical trials, which he’d like to see start soon.

Meanwhile, a growing number of Canadians with MS have travelled to Bulgaria, Poland, India, Mexico and the United States to have their veins widened. They bring back anecdotal reports of im­mediate results, such as restored warmth to their feet and hands, clearer vision and less fatigue.

Juurlink was at the University of Saskatchewan from 1975 until 2008, when he moved to Saudi Arabia as a founding faculty member of Alfaisal University; he serves as a professor of anatomy and cell biology.

He said his research into strokes intersected with MS research during the 1990s when he start­ed looking at the development of the cells that form myelin, the fatty sheaths around the brain’s axons — portions of nerve cells that transmit elec­trical impulses. Damage to the myelin sheaths caused by immune cell attacks is the commonly accepted cause of MS.

MS research has almost completely focused on the immune attack, but Juurlink found reports of myelin breakdowns in the absence of immune cells. That led him to wonder what else could cause the damage.

Because of his research into strokes, he knew the first tissues affected when blood flow in the brain is reduced are the myelin-covered nerve fibres — and some of the changes resemble the changes in the brains of MS patients.

While a scientist at the Cameco MS Neurosci­ence Research Centre in Saskatoon, he hypoth­esized that reduced blood flow could be the cause of MS lesions in the brain, and so lesions may be prevented by increasing the blood flow.

"It wasn’t covered up, but it went against the grain of what was considered to be common know­ledge, that everybody knew, despite the evidence to the contrary. This was completely ignored," said Juurlink. "Once ideas are accepted, it’s very difficult to get individuals to look at a problem in a different light.

"Despite what scientists claim — that they’re open-minded — it’s actually not the case, usually, because everybody says, ‘Of course, it’s an im­mune attack, we know it’s an immune attack.’ " However, the relation of vein obstructions to MS won’t be known without carefully controlled, double-blinded clinical trials, Juurlink said. "Per­sonally, I don’t understand why we don’t have im­mediate clinical trials." Current work related to Zamboni’s theory at Saskatoon’s research centre focuses on whether the veins are restricted. The lead researcher, Dr. Katherine Knox, said this week her team is focus­ing on that work before moving on to any potential clinical trials.

The dean of the University of Saskatchewan’s college of medicine, Dr. William Albritton, and provincial Health Minister Don McMorris have both spoken recently of clinical trials being fast­tracked.

— Postmedia News