New treatment for MS tested
A new pathway for treating multiple sclerosis may have been found, if “exciting” results in mice can be replicated in humans.
Researchers trying a novel therapy on a mouse version of MS report that the mice showed “almost no inflammation of the myelin sheath and no nerve damage”. Furthermore, MS is characterised by periods of remission and relapse, but the mice recovered with fewer and far less severe relapses.
The therapy targets immune system cells called T-cells. These malfunction in MS patients, producing inflammatory molecules that destroy the myelin sheath. The new treatment, which uses a class of molecules called kynurenines, works by inhibiting the T-cells’ production of inflammatory molecules and prompting them to produce agents that “mop up” the molecules.
