Tuberculosis Vaccine Effective as Treatment for MS

A recent study shows that a vaccine typically used to prevent tuberculosis in countries outside of the U.S. could also prevent multiple sclerosis (MS) in people who are in the beginning stages of the disease. In the study, researchers looked at 73 patients who showed early signs of MS, 33 of whom received one injection of the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, while the others received a placebo. After six months of brain scans, all the participants received another MS drug called interferon beta-1a for one year, followed by whatever MS drug their neurologist prescribed. Immediately following the BCG vaccine, all patients were evaluated for definite MS for five years. Six months into the study, patients who received the vaccine had a lower-than-average number of brain lesions (three) that are indicative of MS compared with the placebo group that had seven lesions. No major differences in side effects were noticed between the two groups by the end of the study. Altogether, 58 percent of the vaccinated group hadn’t developed MS, which was almost twice that of the placebo group (30 percent). Typically, half of all patients in the early stage of MS, known as the clinically isolated syndrome, develop a clinically definite form of MS within two years of diagnosis, while 10 percent remain unchanged. The study was reported on in the Dec. 4 issue of Neurology.