Friday June 07 2013 03:18 PM

Small trial suppressing anti-myelin immune responses shows promise 

An initial safety study in nine people with MS indicates that this novel approach could be developed further.

MS is thought to be an autoimmune condition where the body's immune system attacks the myelin coating around nerves. This leads to damage which, in turn, leads to problems with messages passing along the nerves so causing symptoms.

This research, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, took blood samples from people with MS then linked their white blood cells to the fragments of myelin that the immune system reacts to. This mix was re-injected to see if the person's immune system could be trained to stop reacting against the body's own myelin.

Nine people with MS took part: seven with relapsing remitting MS and two with secondary progressive MS. In all the participants, their immune system had already been shown to respond to at least one of the myelin fragments used in the trial therapy.

They found that the treatment was well tolerated and safe. In addition, those who received the higher doses of treatment, had reduced immune responses to myelin. This suggests that it may be possible to retrain the immune system using this kind of approach.

The researchers plan to undertake trials with a larger number of people to explore the feasibility of this approach further.

Read the MS Trust's original article