Drugs used to treat HIV could be used to treat multiple sclerosis (MS), new research suggests.

Researchers found that people infected with HIV infection have a significantly lower risk of developing the debilitating nerve condition, The Daily Mail reports.

They say chronic dampening down of the immune system as a result of HIV - or the antiretroviral drugs used to treat - it could be the reason behind the lowered risk.

The MS Society said that while much more research is needed into the subject, the study shows that that antiretrovirals could be a potential future option for treatment for MS.

The condition is caused by the body’s own defences attacking myelin, the fatty insulation surrounding nerve fibres.

As myelin is stripped away, nerve impulses can no longer be transmitted properly leading to symptoms ranging from mild tingling to full-blown paralysis.

The condition can cause attacks or relapses that may lead to progressive loss of physical skills, sensation, vision, bladder control, and intellectual abilities.

Drugs that dampen the immune system can slow early forms of the disease, but little can be done for patients in the later stages.

In the new study, researchers from Queen Mary University of London, the University of Oxford and the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, Australia, examined more than 21,000 HIV-positive patients treated in hospitals in England between 1999 and 2011.

They then compared them to more than five million control subjects.

Their study, published in the Journal Of Neurology Neurosurgery And Psychiatry, found that those with HIV were 62 per cent less likely to develop MS than the controls.