Low doses of the drug FTY720, also called fingolimod, given  to mice once a day for three days eliminated an infection by a  virus that can cause meningitis, an inflammation of the  membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. The findings suggest the drug, which boosted anti-viral  immune responses in the mice, may be useful against viruses  that cause high-level, long-lasting infections in people such  as hepatitis C and HIV, the researchers said. Microbiologist and immunologist John Altman of Emory  University in Atlanta, who led the study, said the researchers  plan to assess the effects of the drug on other viruses  including the monkey version of the AIDS virus. Altman, whose findings were published in the journal  Nature, expressed cautious optimism that the drug might work  against certain chronic viral infections in people. “We think it’s crucial that we do experiments to check it  out,” Altman said in a telephone interview. The drug is generally considered to be an immunosuppressant  that works to restrain the body’s natural defenses. That could be helpful in multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune  disease in which the immune system attacks body parts as if  they were foreign invaders. But one effect of the drug seems to facilitate the immune  response, the researchers said. FTY720 among other things traps  white blood cells — key soldiers in the immune system’s fight  against infections — in the lymph nodes, Altman said. With viral infections, the lymph nodes are where the immune  response can get primed and started, Altman said. Some viruses  replicate themselves at high levels in lymph nodes, including  the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. They tested the drug against a mouse virus called  lymphocytic choriomeningitis, which causes chronic infections  by escaping immune responses. “In the absence of treatment (with FTY720) we have an  exhausted immune response. In the presence of treatment, we  regain a robust cellular immune response,” Altman said. Swiss drug maker Novartis said in June two multiple  sclerosis patients taking FTY720 in clinical trials had  problems with infections and one died, but the role of the drug  in the cases was unclear. Novartis plans at the end of 2009 to seek approval by the  European Union for FTY720 to treat MS, spokeswoman Valerie Tate  said by e-mail. The drug is currently in late-stage trials. Altman said his study was backed by the U.S. government’s  National Institutes of Health and was not funded by Novartis.
MS drug may work against viral infection: study.