Pregnancy provides MS repair clue

Maybe if they can figure out a cure for one auto-immune disease, they can apply it to others...

A pregnancy hormone may help repair the damage to nerves caused by multiple sclerosis, Canadian research suggests.

The Journal of Neuroscience study, by the University of Calgary, may explain why MS tends to go into remission while women are pregnant. Working on mice, the researchers found the hormone - prolactin - encourages production of myelin, the fatty substance that protects nerve cells.

Myelin is degraded by MS, damaging nerves' ability to transmit messages. The latest finding raises hopes of new treatments for MS, and other neurological disorders, which potentially reverse, rather than stabilise symptoms.

The researchers showed that prolactin was directly responsible for the formation of new myelin in the brains and spinal cords of pregnant mice. When mice with MS-like nerve damage were injected with the hormone, their myelin was also repaired.

Immune system attack

Would be neat if defects could be fixed before birth...

'Gene therapy for foetuses' hope
Monday, 19 March 2007, Scientists believe in the future they will be able to cure serious diseases by treating babies in the womb using gene therapy.

The work is controversial not just because of the ethics but also safety concerns. A few years ago France and the US suspended gene therapy trials after a child who had undergone treatment at the age of three developed cancer. The British Society for Gene Therapy heard how trials were progressing.

Womb therapy

Gene therapy is a way of treating disease by either replacing damaged or abnormal genes with normal ones or by providing new genetic instructions to help fight disease. These therapeutic genes can be transferred into the patient attached to a non-threatening virus or similar carrier "vector" which is injected it into the body.

Scientists have already successfully treated patients with haemophilia and infants with rare "bubbly boy" disease, who have no immune system, using gene therapy. "If you are going to treat adults it is often too late to reverse some of the damage" - Dr Simon Waddington of University College London

More http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/health/6458425.stm

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Sunshine helpful to ward off MS...

Sunshine 'protective' against MS
Saturday, 28 July 2007, Basking in the sun's rays lowers the risk of developing multiple sclerosis, a US study suggests.

The University of Southern California team suggest UV rays offer protection by altering the cell immune responses or by boosting vitamin D levels. An earlier study found women who took vitamin D supplements were 40% less likely to develop MS. The latest research is published in the journal Neurology.

Protective effect

MS is among the most common neurological diseases affecting around two million people worldwide. However, it is more common at higher latitudes, which generally have lower levels of ultraviolet radiation - the type produced by the sun. People in these countries are exposed to less sunlight, which triggers a chemical reaction in the body leading to vitamin D production.

For the study, researchers surveyed 79 pairs of identical twins who had the same genetic risk of MS. In each pair, one of the twins had MS. "The researchers are certainly not suggesting people go out and get skin cancer. Exposure to the sun's rays can be dangerous" - Chris Jones, chief executive of the MS Trust

More BBC NEWS | Health | Sunshine 'protective' against MS

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New MS finding...

Multiple sclerosis findings could help pinpoint cause
29 July 2007 - Gene hunters from the USA and Europe have located two genes that appear to increase the risk of developing multiple sclerosis, studies released Sunday show.

The findings are widely expected to help scientists figure out what causes MS, a baffling disease of the central nervous system that afflicts about 350,000 people in the USA. The hope is that new knowledge will lead to the development of more targeted treatments, says Jonathan Haines, director of the Center for Human Genetics Research at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

"We've been trying to identify the genetic basis of MS for a long time," Haines says. Researchers discovered one gene in the 1970s called HLA (human leukocyte antigen) that raises the risk of developing MS, and they knew that other genes probably play a role, he says. But the intense search to find them has been disappointing — until now.

In the July 29 online edition of Nature Genetics, Haines and his colleagues pored over previous studies to identify genes that appeared to have a role in the disease. They then collected blood from more than 10,000 people, MS patients and healthy subjects alike. The DNA was extracted from the samples, and researchers homed in on suspect genes. They found that a variation in the interleukin 7 receptor gene increased the risk of developing MS by 20% to 30%. A second study in Nature Genetics confirmed that finding.

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See also:

Breakthrough in MS 'biggest for decades'
July 30, 2007 - INVESTIGATOTRS have reported the biggest breakthrough in decades into the genetic drivers for multiple sclerosis (MS), identifying two genes that each boost the risk of developing this tragic disease by up to 30 per cent.

In MS, the immune system attacks myelin, the fatty sheath that protects the cells of the central nervous system, rather like plastic insulation that protects electrical cables. As a result, "short circuits'' occur in the body's messaging system, because nerve signals get slowed or blocked. This leads to difficulties in movement and co-ordination, muscle weakness, cognitive impairment, slurred speech and vision problems.

Until now, investigations of the human genome have turned up only a cluster of variants of genes on Chromosome 6, in the so-called Major Histocompatibility Complex, which regulates the immune system. But these genes were identified in the mid-1970s, leaving frustrated doctors to hunt for other culprits in the complex cascade of processes involved in MS.

The new suspects play a role in guiding key immune cells, called T cells, which patrol the body for intruders. They carry the name of interleukin-7 receptor alpha, or IL7R-alpha, located on Chromosome 5, and interleukin-2 receptor alpha (IL2R-alpha) on Chromosome 10, which has previously been associated with Type 1 diabetes.

More Breakthrough in MS 'biggest for decades' | NEWS.com.au

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New vaccine for MS...

New vaccine may help MS patients, study finds
Mon Aug 13, 2007 - An experimental vaccine against multiple sclerosis appears to be safe and may produce beneficial changes in patients' brains and immune systems, Canadian researchers reported on Monday.

Some patients appeared to have fewer immune cells attacking their nerves, a hallmark of MS, the researchers report in the Archives of Neurology. They also appeared to have fewer lesions in their brains. The study was designed only to show that the vaccine was safe, and it is safe enough to continue phase 2 trials, which begin to look at whether it works, the researchers said.

In multiple sclerosis, the immune system mistakenly attacks the fatty myelin sheaths that protect nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. There is no cure for the disease, which affects an estimated 400,000 people in the United States alone, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Symptoms include blurred vision, loss of balance, poor coordination, extreme fatigue, paralysis and blindness.

Dr. Amit Bar-Or of the Montreal Neurological Institute and colleagues tested the vaccine, called BHT-3009, in 30 patients. The vaccine is made by Bayhill Therapeutics, a Palo Alto, California-based biotechnology company, which also paid for the study. A so-called therapeutic vaccine -- designed to treat a condition, not to prevent infection -- it targets the misguided immune system cells, called CD4 T-cells, that attack myelin.

MORE

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Would the connection be that pregnancy creates bone marrow?

Bone marrow treatments 'repair' MS patients
Tues., May. 6, 2008 - Seven years later, patients in small study still enjoy a mysterious remission

An experiment that went wrong may provide a new way to treat multiple sclerosis, a Canadian researcher said on Tuesday. Patients who got bone marrow stem-cell transplants — similar to those given to leukemia patients — have enjoyed a mysterious remission of their disease. And Dr. Mark Freedman of the University of Ottawa is not sure why.

"Not a single patient, and it's almost seven years, has ever had a relapse," Freedman said. Multiple sclerosis or MS affects an estimated 1 million people globally. There is no cure. It can cause mild illness in some people while causing permanent disability in others. Symptoms may include numbness or weakness in one or more limbs, partial or complete loss of vision, and an unsteady gait.

Freedman, who specializes in treating MS, wanted to study how the disease unfolds. He set up an experiment in which doctors destroyed the bone marrow and thus the immune systems of MS patients. Then stem cells known as hematopoeitic stem cells, blood-forming cells taken from the bone marrow, were transplanted back into the patients. "We weren't looking for improvement," Freedman told a stem cell seminar at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. "The actual study was to reboot the immune system."

More Bone marrow treatments 'repair' MS patients - Health care - MSNBC.com

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MS mental study in Italy...

Multiple Sclerosis Can Affect Children's IQ, Thinking Skills
(May 13, 2008) — Multiple sclerosis (MS) typically starts in young adulthood, but about five percent of cases start in childhood or the teen years.

Children with MS are at risk to exhibit low IQ scores and problems with memory, attention and other thinking skills, according to a new study. Children who developed the disease at a younger age were more likely to have low IQ scores than children who were older when the disease started. "It's possible that MS can show an even more dramatic effect on the thinking skills and intelligence in children than in adults, since the disease might affect the brain at a time when it is still developing," said study author Maria Pia Amato, MD, of the University of Florence in Italy. For the study, 63 children under age 18 with MS were compared to 57 healthy children of similar ages. The participants were given 17 tests to measure their overall intelligence, memory, language abilities, and other thinking skills.

Five of the children with MS had very low IQ scores of less than 70; none of the healthy children had a score less than 70. Fifteen of the children with MS had IQ scores between 70 and 89, compared to two of the healthy children. A total of 19 children with MS (31 percent) met the criteria for cognitive impairment by failing at least three of the tests, while less than five percent of the healthy children failed at least three tests. Unanswered questions from this study include the effects (positive or negative) of MS medications on cognitive function. Also, the possible role of depression in these findings was not systematically assessed.

About 30 percent of the children with MS also had language difficulties, which is not common in adults with MS. "Since the disease occurs during a critical phase for language development, children may be particularly vulnerable to language problems," Amato said. Amato said information about the effect of MS on the thinking skills in children and teenagers has been limited. "We need to understand how the disease affects kids so we can help them manage their difficulties and academic challenges," she said. This research was published in the May 13, 2008, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study was supported in part by a grant from Biogen-Dompè, a manufacturer of medications for MS.

Multiple Sclerosis Can Affect Children's IQ, Thinking Skills

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New multiple sclerosis oral treatment...

Promising trials for new MS pill
Friday, 20 June 2008 - A new oral drug for multiple sclerosis show signs of cutting brain damage associated with the disease.

Laquinimod was shown to reduce signs of disease activity in scans, and was well tolerated by patients with the relapsing-remitting form of MS. Experts say an oral medication could potentially be a significant advance, as current drugs are all injectable.

The study, published in the Lancet, was carried out by a team from Milan's University Vita-Salute. "Having to regularly inject treatments is unpleasant and the sooner a safe and effective pill is made available, the better" - Dr Laura Bell, MS Society

MS is caused by a faulty immune system, which attacks the myelin sheaths protecting the nerves, damaging their ability to transmit signals. It particularly affects the white matter tissue found in the brain and other parts of the nervous system. Drugs available at the moment, such as glatiramer acetate and beta interferon, focus on the inflammation caused by the disease - a particular problem with the relapsing-remitting form - but they all have to be injected.

Damage to brain

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Detecting MS earlier...

Earlier MS diagnosis may be possible
Aug. 5 `08 -- German scientists say they've discovered a new magnetic resonance imaging medium that might enable the early diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

Neuroradiologists and neurologists from University Hospitals of Heidelberg and Wurzburg said that in an animal model of multiple sclerosis, they have used a new contract medium -- Gadofluorine M -- to visualize inflammatory tissue damage, most of which had previously remained unrecognized.

Drug treatments are most effective during the early stage of the disease, the researchers noted. But, up to now, an early diagnosis could not be frequently established with certainty, especially if no or very few inflammatory lesions are present on an MRI scan.

"With this new contrast medium, we were able to visualize five to 10 times more foci of inflammation in comparison to conventional MRI images and contrast media", said Professor Martin Bendszus, medical director of the Department of Neuroradiology at the University Hospital of Heidelberg. The research appears in the online edition of the journal Brain.

Earlier MS diagnosis may be possible