Oldenlandia affinis (Photo from Flora of Mozambique).

Now, I don’t know about you But I have a healthy skepticism about new drugs that are said to be able to change how multiple sclerosis affects me. And I can imagine that the same is true of people living with a host of autoimmune diseases.

Disease modifying drugs can help some people but they can often have quite unpleasant side effects. I remember reading about one such drug that was then under development. In its list of side effects, one of its extremely ones was given as death. That would be one hell of a modification of the disease and would certainly stop me being affected by MS.

However, news that a new plant-derived oral drug is thought to stop multiple sclerosis progression is extremely promising, if not too good to be true. According to an article by Beth Prystowsky in Modern Day MS, this breakthrough could be a step forward in preventing and treating multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases.

Ms Prystowsky explains:

The drug treatment, called T20K, was extracted from a traditional medicinal plant, called the Oldenlandia affinis and has been successful in an animal model.

“This is a really exciting discovery because it may offer a whole new quality of life for people with this debilitating disease,” says Dr. Gruber, a researcher from University of Queenland.

“Cyclotides are present in a range of common plants, and they show significant potential for the treatment of auto immune diseases,” he said.

“The T20K peptides exhibit extraordinary stability and chemical features that are ideally what you want in an oral drug candidate.”

According to Medical Xpress, MedUni Vienna with Freiburg University Hospital has filed patent applications in several countries and licensed them out to Cyxone for further development. A Phase I clinical trial for this could start at the end of 2018.