Jennifer Matthews: Art Coscuna is a big football fan. Three years ago, he was forced to put his playing dreams on the shelf.
Art Coscuna: I was just walking, and all of a sudden, my right foot kind of went up and my whole right side went numb. I just stopped and I said, 'This isn't right.' I turned to go back to my car and I collapsed.
Jennifer Matthews: Art has MS, a disease in which the immune system attacks nerves, affecting muscles, coordination and balance. Medications are limited in controlling the disease. Art's neurologist, Dr. Marco Rizzo, enrolled him in a study on an experimental drug called antegren.
Dr. Marco Rizzo, M.D., Ph.D.: The hypothesis is that this antibody keeps the immune system from entering the spinal cord and brain and wreaking destruction.
Jennifer Matthews: On an MRI, the brain of a healthy person appears uniformly gray. The MRI of a person with MS has white spots, lesions from inflammation and scarring that result in nerve damage.
Dr. Marco Rizzo, M.D., Ph.D.: Those patients on the drug, on antegren, had a significant improvement in the MRI scans compared to those patients who received placebo.
Jennifer Matthews: That's good news for Art.
Art Coscuna: They said, 'It will take time. It will come back. Those nerves have got to find a new route to run, but it's not something that's going happen overnight.'
Jennifer Matthews: This is Jennifer Matthews reporting.
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