Researchers are to examine whether or not cheap cholesterol-busting statins could help people with motor neurone disease (MND) live longer. People with the progressive neurodegenerative disease usually die within three to five years after diagnosis.

There is no cure for the condition, which causes muscle weakness and gets worse over time, but researchers wanted to assess whether repurposing other drugs could give people longer with their loved ones. Academics, led by experts at Stanford University in the US, examined medical records of US veterans diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – one of the main forms of MND.

They analysed data on the medical records of 11,003 veterans between 2009 and 2019. The research team found that people also prescribed certain medications appeared to live longer – some 18 medications taken for other conditions were linked with prolonged survival.

• Dr Xand alert for anyone with sleep issues taking common drug


• 'I died for an hour and saw my grandpa - but it wasn't really him'

These included statins prescribed to treat high cholesterol and alpha blockers, also known as alpha adrenergic receptor antagonists, which are prescribed to improve urine flow in men with enlarged prostates. “To our knowledge, this is the largest study to identify new ALS treatment candidates through drug repurposing and the first to be based on electronic health records,” the authors wrote in the Lancet Digital Health journal.

Lead author Professor Richard Reimer, from Stanford University School of Medicine, told the Press Association: “Currently there are no truly effective treatments for ALS and people with the disease only live between three and five years after they have been diagnosed. Developing treatments for ALS has been difficult and disappointing because we don’t understand the disease completely and it is difficult to study in the clinic.

“Our findings suggest that treatment with statins and alpha blockers might prolong survival for individuals with ALS. Both statins and alpha blockers are generally well tolerated and available in inexpensive generic forms.”

He added: “The next steps will be determining why these associations exist and who may benefit from the treatments. For example, are statins affecting ALS survival by lowering cholesterol? Are they only helpful to individuals with elevated cholesterol?

“Once there is a better understanding of the link between these medications and survival for people with ALS, we hope that formal placebo controlled trials will confirm their benefit.”

Grey’s Anatomy actor Eric Dane died in February at the age of 53, less than a year after publicly revealing he had been diagnosed with ALS. Dane is best known for playing the fan favourite Dr Mark ‘McSteamy’ Sloan on the long-running medical drama from 2006 until 2012. He more recently starred in the HBO hit drama Euphoria and after his diagnosis became a spokesperson for the ALS community.