Potassium channel blockers from Ruta--a new approach for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyehnating disease of the central nervous system with a focal loss of myelin (plaques) which leaves the bared axon cylinder physically intact for quite a long time after the onset of the disease The variety of localization of plaques and the great number of abnormal modes of impulse conduction give rise to the complex functional deficits seen in MS (Waxman 1981) No specific and completely effective agent against MS has been discovered so far (Lauer and Firnhaber 1988)