On a typical weekday, Richard Bauer jogs 21/2 miles near his White Marsh home and then drives to Baltimore, where he is a first-year radiography student.
After a full day of lectures, he likes to relax by reading Japanese Performance and Motorcyclist.
"But free time is rare," he says with a grin.
Life wasn't always this way for Bauer. In recent years, he couldn't muster the strength to get out of bed. In 2004, he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis, which left him paralyzed and in a wheelchair for more than a year.
Then Bauer tried an experimental drug regimen, and his body reacted in a manner that surprised everyone: The debilitating symptoms of MS almost disappeared.
Writing this month in a medical journal, Johns Hopkins researchers reported unexpected success in the treatment of Bauer and other MS patients who received a high dose of an immunosuppressant drug known as cyclophosphamide.
According to the small, pilot-stage study, the regimen may not only slow the progression of MS, but also restore neurological function lost to the disease.
In the Hopkins trial, nine people, most of whom had failed to respond to other treatments, received a single infusion of cyclophosphamide over four days and then were followed for two years.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging showed that the number of brain lesions decreased in seven of the nine volunteers, which meant that neurological function was being restored. Some began walking, controlling their bowels and bladders, and returning to work for the first time in years.
"We took the worst of the worst patients. We didn't expect such a dramatic improvement in function," said Dr. Douglas Kerr, associate professor of neurology at the School of Medicine, whose report was published in the June issue of the Archives of Neurology. "There's a real need for this type of therapy for MS patients, many in the prime of their lives."
The results, though preliminary, offer hope for the 400,000 Americans afflicted with MS, a degenerative disease in which the immune system attacks the central nervous system. MS can cause poor coordination, blindness, paralysis and cognitive problems. The disease is not considered fatal, but it can considerably impair quality of life as symptoms come and go - or in many cases, become permanent.
