The human body is an incredibly complex and efficient system and when it’s homeostatic – that is, internally stable, all is well. But for patients with multiple sclerosis, the symptoms can be devastating.

"We think of our bodies as following our commands and especially, our nervous systems. We really think our nervous system, in many ways, as the physical manifestation of ourselves and so for these things not to work for many patients is understandably really disorienting."

Dr. Ari Green of the University of California, San Francisco is part of a team that’s identified eight FDA-approved drugs that may stimulate nervous system repair in multiple sclerosis. The most effective of the drugs is an over-the-counter antihistamine, which is being moved quickly into clinical trial as a potential therapy for MS.

"That was one of the reasons why we wanted to pursue evaluation of FDA-approved compounds. They’ve already been discovered. That biology is known, it’s just not known how that biology affects individual classes of cells."