Multiple Sclerosis: A Causative Analysis

As we've already read in class, many researchers are looking at what they believe is/are the cause/s for the development and full expression of multiple sclerosis. We read a paper on microglia changing its phenotype to a cell somewhat identical to a phagocyte, and past research focuses have been on T cells. This condition is commonly referred to as an autoimmune response to some protein of the myelin sheaths, though this is still debatable. Current treatment can attenuate the response and lesson the symptoms, but there is no way to target any chemical treatment to the nervous tissue without effecting the entire immune system and its cells--so attenuating the cells of the immune system pharmacologically if a patient with MS also attenuates any immune response (depending on the compound used). The research of MS is further confounded by research models. Currently, rate or mice are generally used; however, since the cause of the disease is unknown, we cannot accurately say that the animal models are expressing the disease to the same or similar extent.

The affected tissue lies deep within the brain, forbidding any manual intervention that would not cause unknown irreversible consequences. Recent research has been done on the assumption that MS spontaneously begins with auto-reactive T cells, and this is supported by the mice models which much be injected with nervous tissue to develop the disease. Countering this idea is a group of scientists who have developed a murine which spontaneously develops MS. All murine models of MS have not been able to show B cell involvement, except this new model. The group found that yes, T cells are active in the model, but they are not actually inducing disease...B cells induce MS (shown by general good health in these models when B cells are removed). This is not to say that B cells are the prime player. T cells can do plenty of damage in the brain, but antibodies may be needed to sustain and develop the disease.

I just found this research interesting, and linked the paper's title above. I still feel it's important to take this with a grain of salt, simply because this is one study, published recently, in a species other than our own with a disease that is still not understood fully and may not completely represent how we express the disease. There's obviously a lot of research to do, but it's so very interesting to read about these finds which go against what the topic's body of research says.