The asthma drug that is being used to beat paralysis: How one patient went from using a wheelchair to walk unaided

A type of medication that  is normally used by asthma sufferers has been proving stunningly effective in treating a form or paralysis – and has even allowed a wheelchair-bound teenager to walk unaided for the first time in seven years.

Jimmy Webster, 18, took salbutamol to treat congenital myasthenia. He had been so disabled he sometimes needed an oxygen-mask to breathe.

But he says: ‘Within three days I could stand and within a week I could walk.’ Now he is about to go camping and adds: ‘I wouldn’t have contemplated this last year.’ 

Salbutamol is prescribed to asthmatics in inhaler form under the brand name Ventolin. It is now proving a remarkable treatment for myasthenia, which affects 12,000 Britons and can cause symptoms ranging from a mild drooping of the eyelids to full-blown paralysis.

The drug is a beta-2-agonist, a class of compounds that affect the nerve communications in the muscles. It was already known that a similar drug, ephedrine – a stimulant also found in cold and flu remedies, and in higher doses in dangerous ‘fat-burning’ diet pills – was sometimes effective in treating myasthenia.

Studies had shown widespread benefits, with another teenage patient going from needing crutches to walk, to jogging and doing sit-ups.

So Professor David Beeson at the Weatherall Institute, of Molecular Medicine, Oxford University, looked for other drugs which may work as well or better. One of these was salbutamol.

Myasthenia is either congenital – due to a genetic mutation – or caused by the immune system turning inward and attacking the body, developing later in life.

The congenital condition is noticeable from birth but the problem with treating it is that it is caused by different genetic mutations, which need different drug combinations. Prof Beeson explains: ‘Our research is devoted to working out what drugs best treat each one.’

Salbutamol can be used alone or with other drugs. Prof Beeson adds: ‘It is not yet licensed for use in the condition, but clinicians are happy to prescribe it.’

He suggested that Jimmy try salbutamol alongside pyridostigmine, a standard drug which he had been taking since he was four.

‘I expected I’d get stronger, but had no idea I’d be able to walk again,’ says Jimmy, from Cardiff, who is awaiting A-level results before hopefully going to study Economics at Oxford University.

‘I still use my wheelchair out and about, but at home I walk around – just getting dressed, washing and cooking, it’s amazing to be able to normal things.’

Prof Beeson says: ‘It is incredibly rewarding to see results like this. Over the last couple of years we have seen patients rise from their wheelchairs within months, but Jimmy’s quite exceptional.’ 

Culled from DailyMail