A new study has revealed that statins that work towards lowering of cholesterol might just end up slowing the progression of multiple sclerosis.

The UCSF-led research aimed at examining the impact of statins on the progression of multiple sclerosis, or MS. It was discovered that patients who were on cholesterol-lowering medicines displayed a lower incidence of new brain lesions. These were the patients who were still in the early stages of MS and were compared with a group which was on MS.

An everyday 80 milligram dose of atorvastatin was administered to patients. This is a drug marketed by Pfizer Inc. as Lipitor and is one of the most popular cholesterol lowering drugs on the market currently.

Although the research was a very small one, involving only 81 subjects, and its main aim, designed to evaluate the progression of MS in patients after their first attack, was not successfully met, the study team did find out over a 1 year course that as many as 55.3% of the subjects on statins did not develop any new brain lesions, as compared to 27.6% of the placebo patients.

Details of the results were presented by the California, San Francisco researchers in Toronto during the yearly scientific meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.