Existing drugs may help Neimann-Pick disease

In 1980, researchers produced mice with Niemann-Pick type C disease, a storage disorder that damages the nervous system. Scientists from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, working with this type of mice, have shown that successful laboratory treatments appear to be acting through a particular receptor (called PXR) in cells. Existing drugs already known to work with PXR include the anti-seizure drug phenytoin (Dilantin), the antibiotic rifampin (Rifadin), and the herbal supplement St. John's wort. If this line of research pans out, new clinical trials might begin trying those drugs as treatment for Niemann-Pick type C disease. The study was published in the September 2006 online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.