Quote: ThirstyMan wrote in post #1

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US researchers found that the drug miconazole instructs stem cells in the brain to repair the nerve damage of MS

A common athlete’s foot cream sold over the counter at most chemists could cure multiple sclerosis, scientists believe.
In what was described as a ‘paradigm shift’ in treating the debilitating condition, researchers found that the drug miconazole - the active ingredient in Daktarin - instructs stem cells in the brain to repair nerve damage.

A team at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio have been testing more than 700 drugs to see if anyone would be useful against multiple sclerosis. Around 100,000 people in Britain suffer from MS and there is currently no cure. The disorder occurs when myelin, the fatty material which protects nerves is damaged, exposing the nerves and causing signalling problems between the brain and muscles. It can lead to vision loss, fatigue, numbness and paralysis.

But the athlete’s foot drug and a cream used to treat eczema were found to stimulate the regeneration of damaged brain cells. It was found to reverse paralysis in mice. "We know that there are stem cells throughout the adult nervous system that are capable of repairing the damage caused by multiple sclerosis, but until now, we had no way to direct them to act," said Dr Paul Tesar, Professor of Innovative Therapeutics at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.

"Our approach was to find drugs that could catalyze the body's own stem cells to replace the cells lost in multiple sclerosis."

Current multiple sclerosis therapies aim to slow further myelin destruction by the immune system, but the Case Western Reserve team used a new approach to create new myelin within the nervous system.

However the team said that much work remains before multiple sclerosis patients might benefit from the promising approach. Scientists still must find ways to transform the topical medications for internal use and determine their long-term efficacy and potential side effects. However they said the initial findings show promise of the chance of a cure for the condition and the drugs have been shown to work on human stem cells.

“This truly represents a paradigm shift in how we think about restoring function to multiple sclerosis patients,” said Dr Robert Miller of the neurosciences faculty.
"The drugs that we identified are able to enhance the regenerative capacity of stem cells in the adult nervous system. It was a striking reversal of disease severity in the mice.”

for more see:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/...-sclerosis.html

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Thanks for posting. This is very interesting.

Miconazole seems to have a variety of uses. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the most important medications needed in a basic health system

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miconazole