Study finds age-related effects in MS may be reversible

Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard University, and the University of Cambridge have found that the age-related impairment of the body’s ability to replace protective myelin sheaths, which normally surround nerve fibers and allow them to send signals properly, may be reversible, offering new hope that therapeutic strategies aimed at restoring efficient regeneration can be effective in the central nervous system throughout life.

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Diabetic mice provide a surprising breakthrough for multiple sclerosis research

In humans, active periods of the debilitating disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS) can last for mere minutes or extend to weeks at a time. They’re caused by lesions in the brain that develop, partly heal, and then recur. Research into a cure has been difficult, because to date scientists have not been able to replicate these brain recurring symptoms in laboratory mice. That’s frustrating because these lab animals, known as animal “models,” are the primary tool for research into the mechanisms and potential treatments for MS.

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Researcher contends multiple sclerosis is not a disease of the immune system

An article to be published Friday (Dec. 23) in the December 2011 issue of The Quarterly Review of Biology argues that multiple sclerosis, long viewed as primarily an autoimmune disease, is not actually a disease of the immune system. Dr. Angelique Corthals, a forensic anthropologist and professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, suggests instead that MS is caused by faulty lipid metabolism, in many ways more similar to coronary atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) than to other autoimmune diseases.

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Promising treatments for blood cancers presented by JTCancerCenter researchers at ASH meeting

Researchers from the John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center, one of the nation’s top 50 best hospitals for cancer, presented results from 31 major studies of blood-related cancers – leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma — during the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, December 10-13, 2011 in San Diego.

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Study shows promising multiple sclerosis treatment targets immune cells to increase neuroprotection

Laquinimod is an orally available synthetic compound that has been successfully evaluated in phase II/III clinical studies for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). The mechanism of action of laquinimod has not been fully elucidated, but a study published in the January 2012 issue of The American Journal of Pathology suggests that laquinimod triggers immune cells within the central nervous system to produce and release brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), contributing to the repair or survival of neurons and thus limiting brain damage.

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New drug shows promise against multiple sclerosis

An experimental drug called Ocrelizumab has shown promise in a Phase 2 clinical trial involving 220 people with multiple sclerosis (MS), an often debilitating, chronic autoimmune disease that affects an increasing number of people in North America. It usually strikes young adults and is more common in women than in men.

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Natural intestinal flora involved in the emergence of multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. For a long time, pathogens were believed to be such external influences. According to scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried, however, it is apparently not harmful bacteria that trigger multiple sclerosis, but beneficial ones – specifically, the natural intestinal flora, which every human being needs for digestion. The researchers discovered that genetically modified mice develop an inflammation in the brain similar to the human disease if they have normal bacterial intestinal flora. The microorganisms begin by activating the immune system’s T cells and, in a further step, the B immune cells. The findings suggest that in humans with the corresponding genetic predisposition, the essentially beneficial intestinal flora could act as a trigger for the development of multiple sclerosis.

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Advance toward a breath test to diagnose multiple sclerosis

Scientists are reporting the development and successful tests in humans of a sensor array that can diagnose multiple sclerosis (MS) from exhaled breath, an advance that they describe as a landmark in the long search for a fast, inexpensive and non-invasive test for MS — the most common neurological disease in young adults. Their report appears in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience.

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Medical researchers ID potential new drug target that could stop debilitating effects of MS

Medical researchers at the University of Alberta have discovered a potential new drug target for Multiple Sclerosis that could prevent physical disability associated with the disease, once a new drug is developed.

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Precision with stem cells a step forward for treating MS, other diseases

Scientists have improved upon their own previous world-best efforts to pluck out just the right stem cells to address the brain problem at the core of multiple sclerosis and a large number of rare, fatal children’s diseases.

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