Antihistamine shows promise in repairing damaged nerves for multiple sclerosis treatment.
Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, have found that clemastine, an over-the-counter antihistamine used to treat hay fever and allergy symptoms, could repair damaged brain nerves and reduce myelin damage in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. The drug stimulates myelin-making stem cells, leading to an increase in myelin water in the brain, which indicates myelin repair. This is the first direct, biologically validated, imaging-based evidence of myelin repair induced by clemastine, setting the standard for future research into remyelinating therapies.