| February 2, 1999
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -- Researchers at the University of Califor=
nia, San Francisco believe they have found an important new clue to the d=
evelopment of multiple sclerosis (MS), which could lead to new ways to tr=
eat the disease.
Dr. Claude Genain, a neurologist, and colleagues at UCSF and Albert E=
instein College of Medicine in New York City have discovered that antibod=
ies produced by B cells -- a type of white blood cell -- attack myelin in=
the fatty sheath that surrounds nerves. Destruction of myelin is a hallm=
ark of MS, a chronic, often disabling disease of the central nervous syst=
em that affects about 300,000 people in the US.
It has been generally accepted that development of MS is related to a=
n abnormal immune response directed against the central nervous system, a=
nd over the past decade, researchers have concentrated their attention on=
the role of the immune system's T cells. But the new study, published in=
the journal Nature Medicine, suggests that antibodies produced by B cell=
s also play an important role.
Genain and his colleagues studied brain tissue taken from MS patients=
and from animals with a similar disease, and were able to determine that=
myelin destruction occurred only in the presence of both T cells primed =
to attack myelin proteins and antibodies directed against a protein in th=
e protective sheath.
"I am convinced that antibodies are a major, major mechanism by which=
myelin damage is produced," Genain told Reuters Health. "The clinical im=
plications are that we may be able to design drugs to inhibit these antib=
odies, to neutralize them and arrest the progression of the disease."
He acknowledged, however, that not all people have the same type of M=
S. "We have looked at what can be called 'hot' lesions where there is int=
ense destructive activity, and found that these are invariably associated=
with antibody deposition," he explained. "However, the respective part p=
layed by T and B cell-mediated mechanisms may well differ in individual c=
ases."
Nevertheless, Genain is optimistic that drugs could be available with=
in several years to counter the effects of the destructive antibodies. =
SOURCE: Nature Medicine February 1999.
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