Researchers in the Neurobiology Program at Children's Hospital Boston have found in animal studies that nicotinamide injections may prevent further nerve-fiber damage in patients on the chronic progressive phase of multiple sclerosis. Their findings appear in a cover article in the September 20 Journal of Neuroscience.

...mice with [experimental autoimmune encephalitis] who received daily nicotinamide injections under their skin had a delayed onset of neurologic disability, and the severity of their deficits was reduced for at least eight weeks after treatment. The greater the dose of nicotinamide, the greater the protective effect

Nicotinamide appears to increase the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) levels in the spinal cord, which protects the axons from degeneration. Nicotinamide is an inexpensive and readily available vitamin, but as the doses that would be required for humans will be much higher than that used in these animal trials, a clinical study will have to be set up to test its safety and efficacy.

[Photo: In mice with MS-like disease, nicotinamide delayed and reduced neurologic disability as indicated by behavioral scores. Source: CHB]