'For people with multiple sclerosis it's just giving us hope'

Annabelle Stigson said being told nothing could be done to halt the decline in her condition "felt like a bereavement"

A woman in a trial looking at whether two drugs could slow the progression of her multiple sclerosis (MS) said it gives those with the condition "hope".

Annabelle Stigwood, 39, of Great Dunmow in Essex, was diagnosed with relapsing MS in 2011 and has chronic fatigue.

The University of Cambridge trial will test whether the drugs can repair myelin - the protective coating around nerves, which gets damaged in MS.

"How exciting is this for somebody in my position?" said Ms Stigwood

Fifty volunteers, some of whom will be given a placebo, will trial taking metformin, a diabetes drug, and clemastine, an antihistamine, to allow researchers to assess whether the drugs could be a safe and effective treatment for repairing myelin.

Ms Stigwood said she knows she may get the placebo but "for people with MS it's just giving us hope".

The MS Society, which is funding the trial, said, if successful, the drugs could provide a way to slow or prevent disability progression.

It added that the current disease-modifying treatments available to people with MS only act on the immune system (which attacks myelin), with none acting to repair myelin itself.

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Ms Stigwood said before her diagnosis she ran seven miles, four times a week, but can now walk half a mile before her symptoms start.

"The MS is slowly chipping away at me," she said.

"When I told the neurologist I was deteriorating he said there was nothing more I could do - it felt like a bereavement and I couldn't talk about it for weeks.

"I couldn't bear the thought of not being able to drop my children off at school."

'Another step closer'

The trial follows promising results from laboratory studies, which showed that metformin, which mimics the effects of fasting, was able to return cells to a "more youthful state", and encourage the re-growth of myelin, the MS Society said.

Evidence from animal studies also showed that metformin enhances the effect of clemastine on myelin repair - but the two drugs have never been tested together.

Prof Alasdair Coles, co-director of the MS Society Cambridge Centre for Myelin Repair, is leading the trial.

He said: "We're another step closer to a time where a person with MS will be given a handful of treatments to tackle all the different elements of MS, so that their life will be minimally affected by the condition."

If the drug combination being trialled appears to be effective, it would still be some time before it would become recognised and widely available as a treatment option.

This initial trial will run for two years, to be followed by a bid for funding for a larger trial if the initial results are encouraging, the MS Society said.

The treatment would have to be licensed by a regulatory body, and assessed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).

The charity said more than 130,000 people are living with MS in the UK, with finding treatments to stop MS progression its "number one priority".

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