VCU Researchers Find MS Drug Can Eliminate Traumatic Memories

Researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine have found that a common multiple sclerosis drug has another benefit: it can be used to eliminate traumatic memories. The drug that the researchers tested is called fingolimod, or FTY720. The drug is an oral treatment for MS, which works by suppressing the body’s immune system. The drug is classified as a prodrug which, when taken orally, is phosphorylated to its active form, called FTY720-phosphate.

The VCU research team had their study published in the May edition of the Nature Neuroscience Journal. In the study, the researchers used a mouse model to show how fingolimod works, along with the drug’s potentially beneficial side effects. The drug accumulates in the brain, and inhibits histone deacetylases—enzymes that help to regulate gene expression. The VCU researchers found that certain genes important for specific memory processes were increasingly expressed. Fingolimod’s processes have not always been well understood, however this new research has helped to shed light on how the drug works. The drug acted similarly to sphingosine 1-phosphate, a natural signaling lipid.

Sarah Spiegel, PhD, who chairs the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the VCU School Medicine, commented on the study’s results. “Our work suggests that some of the beneficial effects of FTY720/fingolimod that are not well understood might be mediated by this new activity that we have discovered,” she said. “It will be important in the future to determine whether this prodrug can reduce loss of cognitive functions and can erase adverse memories. FTY720/fingolimod may be a useful adjuvant therapy to help stop aversive memories such as in post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety disorders.”

Spiegel added that the VCU research team was still working to understand the drug better on a molecular level before human trials began.