Researchers may have struck gold when it comes to treating multiple sclerosis.
An experimental drug called CNM-Au8 – a drinkable liquid containing gold nanocrystals – has shown promising results in clinical trials in improving MS symptoms.
The “catalytically active” liquid, developed by Clene Nanomedicine in Caroline from the southcan cross the blood-brain barrier to help improve cellular energy and restore neurological function, researchers say.
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Doctors from the University of Sydney presented results from the phase 2 clinical trial at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting earlier in April 2024.
The clinical trials included 78 patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis.
An experimental drug called CNM-Au8 – a drinkable liquid containing gold nanocrystals – has shown promising results in clinical trials for improving MS symptoms. (Clene Nanomedicine)
Liquid gold suspension was found to have “profound clinical benefit”, with patients experiencing physical improvements not achieved in previous tests.
A need for new MS drugs
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, brain, spinal cord and optic nerve.
In people with MS, white blood cells called lymphocytes infiltrate the central nervous system and trigger inflammation.
This often causes them to feel unbalanced or lose vision, according to Dr. Robert C. Sergott, chief of neuro-ophthalmology at Wills Eye Hospital and professor of ophthalmology, neurology and neurosurgery at Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Philadelphia.
THE MS medications that are currently available work by fighting inflammation — but there is a subset of patients who continue to experience symptoms even without inflammation, he said. This is a condition called progression independent of relapse activity (PIRA).
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“This is a non-inflammatory component of the disease, in which patients’ vision and cognitive abilities would deteriorate,” Sergott, who participated in the CNM-Au8 clinical trial, told Fox News Digital.
Researchers suspected that something to do with mitochondria – parts of cells responsible for providing energy to those cells – was causing these patients’ symptoms.
“The theory was that if we could give an extra boost to the mitochondria, neurons, axons and other cells in the central nervous system maybe work better,” Sergott said.
The “catalytically active” liquid can cross the blood-brain barrier to help improve cellular energy and restore neurological function, researchers say. (Clene Nanomedicine)
“In other words, these cells may not be dead, but they are hibernating.”
Gold nanoparticles were originally used to treat rheumatoid arthritis many years ago, according to Sergott.
“Clene shaved off the gold particles…