ALS Trial Raises Questions About Promising Drug

摘要

An antibiotic long thought to hold promise for treating neurologic diseases failed dramatically in a recent clinical trial; this news has sparked a debate about why the drug flopped and whether the results should be interpreted broadly. In a study of 412 people with amy-otrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), published earlier this month, scientists were startled to find that patients on the drug, minocycline, declined more quickly than those on a placebo. Now clinics are urgently tracking down ALS patients whose physicians have prescribed minocycline off label. Many have been taking the drug-approved in the 1970s to treat certain infections-because animal studies have shown it can slow the course of brain diseases, and some small human trials have suggested that it's safe. That did not appear to be the case here.