In recent months, scientists have introduced a mounting amount of evidence suggesting cholesterol-lowering medications known as statins may treat symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS). In a recent study, conducted by neurologists from the University of California-San Francisco, mice were given 80-milligram doses of the statin Lipitor. According to the report, the medication "reprogrammed" immune cells that normally destroy the protective coverings of nerve fibers in patients with MS, allowing the cells to produce anti-inflammatory agents that instead protected the nerve's composition and prevented the mice from developing permanent symptoms. If the same results can be reproduced in humans, says the report, the importance of statins may become extensive. Scientists from the Medical University of South Carolina are already conducting a small clinical trial involving the use of Zocor. The results are expected to be published by next spring.

In the October 8th issue of the journal Neurology, researchers with Karl-Franzens University in Austria treated immune cells taken from the blood samples of 74 people with MS and 25 patients without the disorder with simvastatin (Zocor), lovastatin (Mevacor) and mevastatin. According to the report's author, Dr. Juan J. Archelos, the medications were found to "significantly modify the expression of immune molecules on activated T cells in MS, which are supposed to be crucial for MS." T cells are believed to be responsible for tissue damage in patients suffering from the disease.