Forty patients with the disease were randomly selected to receive either 20 milligrams a day of fluoxetine (Prozac) or a placebo for 24 weeks. MRI brain scans were conducted every four weeks to monitor the patients for new areas of neurological inflammation, a hallmark of disease activity.

Of the 38 patients (19 in each group) who completed the study, those who took the placebo had more new areas of inflammation (average of more than five areas) than those who took the drug (average of just under two).

One in four scans from patients treated with fluoxetine showed new areas of inflammation, compared with four out of 10 scans from patients taking the placebo. During the last 16 weeks of treatment, 63 percent of patients in the fluoxetine group had no new areas of inflammation, compared with 26 percent of those in the placebo group.

The findings were published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

This was a small study, and larger studies are needed before any firm conclusions about the use of fluoxetine in patients with relapsing remitting MS can be made, the study authors noted.

However, the findings are "sufficiently encouraging to justify further studies with fluoxetine in patients with MS," they said, and added that higher doses and treatment combinations with other drugs that alter the immune response should be considered in future studies.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more about multiple sclerosis.

A research team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology performed the feat on mature B cells, immune cells that can bind to specific antigens, such as proteins from bacteria, viruses or microorganisms. They said their finding, confirmed when they were able to develop mice from the reprogrammed cells, may help enable the creation of models that will lead to a better study and understanding of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes.

"In principle, this will allow you to transfer a complex genetic human disease into a Petri dish, and study it. That could be the first step to analyze the disease and to define a therapy," Rudolf Jaenisch, an MIT professor of biology, said in a prepared statement.

The findings are published in the April 18 issue of Cell.

More information

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has more about stem cells.

The study authors acknowledge that -- age aside -- the most common forms of dementia are Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia and the brain damage-associated condition known as Lewy body dementia. However, their current work indicates that among patients below the age of 45, the problem is much more likely to be traced back to diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Huntington's, lupus or HIV infection, among others.

"This is really a novel finding, because there hasn't really been a study that's looked at young-onset dementia in this way," said study author Dr. Brendan J. Kelley, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "And the message is that young-onset dementia is generally not related to Alzheimer's."

The work of Kelley and his team was expected to be presented April 15 at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting, in Chicago.

The U.S. Administration on Aging highlights 2006 estimates released by the Alzheimer's Association, which indicate that between 220,000 and 640,000 American men and women currently suffer from early-onset dementia. The association specifically defines "early-onset Alzheimer's" as referring to cases that develop before the age of 65.

However, in their study, Kelley and his team focused exclusively on 235 patients diagnosed with a form of dementia diagnosed between the ages of 17 and 45 -- citing statistics suggesting that 12 in 100,000 people develop some form of early-onset dementia before the age of 45.

All the study patients had sought care at the Mayo Clinic between 1996 and 2006, and all had normal cognitive function prior to their dementia diagnosis.

A medical record analysis revealed that despite the fact that most adult dementia is a function of Alzheimer's, less than 2 percent of the cases among the under-45 group was attributable to that disease.

Kelley and his colleagues found that other neurodegenerative conditions -- such as frontotemporal dementia, a group of diseases commonly misdiagnosed as Alzheimer's -- were at play in almost one-third of the cases.

Autoimmune and inflammatory disorders -- such as MS -- accounted for just over 20 percent of the dementia cases. Metabolic abnormalities were cited in just over 10 percent of the diagnoses, while for another 20 percent, no cause for dementia could be established.

Kelley said his work is ongoing. And he added that he and his colleagues are now trying to identify specific disease markers for early-onset dementia to help physicians distinguish those cases prompted by causes other than Alzheimer's.

"Because some of the other disorders linked to early dementia have treatable profiles that allow targeting not just of the symptoms but of the underlying disease process," he noted. "So, we really should be looking to identify them quickly when they are the cause, because the research suggests that treatment could result in a direct improvement of the patient's cognition and behavior."

Greg M. Cole, associate director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, described the findings as "interesting, but not completely unexpected".

"We know that Alzheimer's gets rarer and rarer the younger you go," he said. "So, when you're focused as this study is on people between 17 and 45 -- really before middle-age -- it's more likely you'll find some other cause for the dementia, which can be a variety of different things."

"But if you're looking at these other autoimmune causes -- multiple sclerosis, lupus, HIV -- the real question is, can you treat any of this?," pondered Cole. "Because you can get lupus and MS to go into remission. So, in this case, if patients are getting dementia caused by either disease, can the dementia also go into remission? If they can get that to happen, that would be very interesting."

More information

For additional information on early-onset Alzheimer's, visit the U.S. Administration on Aging.

The pill was effective in preventing relapses in more than 60 percent of patients who took the pill for three years, according to research that was expected to be presented April 15 the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting, in Chicago.

"All of the current treatments for MS must be injected, so having a pill you can swallow with a glass of water would be a welcome improvement for many people," lead researcher Dr. Giancarlo Comi, from Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, said in a prepared statement.

In the study, Comi's team treated 281 people with relapsing MS with FTY720 (fingolimod) or a placebo. After six months, two-thirds of the patients who received FTY720 had more than 50 percent fewer relapses, compared with those receiving placebo.

During the three years of the trial, more than 67 percent of the 173 people receiving FTY720 were free of relapses. In addition, 89 percent of the patients were free of disease activity and 75 percent did not develop new lesions or see their lesions enlarge. This was confirmed by MRI scans, the researchers stated.

"The first-line treatments for MS, beta interferon and glatiramer acetate, reduce the relapse rate by only about 30 percent, so this is a significant development for people with MS," Comi said in a statement.

The most commonly reported side effects of FTY720 were headache, flu and cold symptoms.

The drug works by binding to receptors on immune cells, isolating them in the lymph nodes, thereby reducing their ability to cause the damage associated with MS symptoms.

The study was paid for by Novartis Pharma AG, maker of FTY720.

One expert thinks this preliminary data is encouraging, but a lot more needs to be done to prove the drug's effectiveness.

"This is a new drug that has a very strong scientific rationale why it could work," said Dr. John Richert, executive vice president of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. "Certainly, everything we've seen so far continues to keep us optimistic."

Richert noted that over three years, 77 patients receiving the drug dropped out of the study. "You're left wondering if a more severe adverse event led to the dropouts," he said.

The six-month data where the drug was tested against placebo looks promising, Richert said. "If this turns out to be a safe oral drug that has substantial benefit, that will be very important for many people with MS," he added.

More information

For more on MS, visit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Here is more information about autoimmune diseases, courtesy of the U.S. National Women's Health Information Center:

• Autoimmune diseases affect more women than men, and tend to run in families.
• Symptoms may come and go, with no symptoms for a while, then a sudden, severe attack called a "flare-up."
• Symptoms and severity can vary greatly from disease to disease.
• Medication can help control symptoms, as can reducing stress. Meditation and self-hypnosis also have helped some people.
• People with an autoimmune disease should practice healthy habits including getting regular exercise, eating a proper diet, and getting plenty of sleep.