Blocking a specific protein responsible for nerve damage acted as a hand brake to progression of the disease, researchers from RMIT and Monash Universities have discovered.
The findings, published this week in the international journal Brain, could provide hope to sufferers of MS, one of the world's most common neurological diseases.
MS interrupts the communication between nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord by damaging the protective coating around nerve fibres, known as myelin, and causing lesions.
Lead researcher Dr Steven Petratos said modified proteins found within the MS lesions interacted with another protein to cause nerve damage.
When the modified protein, or the communication between the two proteins, was blocked, disease progression was halted.The findings, published this week in the international journal Brain, could provide hope to sufferers of MS, one of the world's most common neurological diseases.
MS interrupts the communication between nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord by damaging the protective coating around nerve fibres, known as myelin, and causing lesions.
Lead researcher Dr Steven Petratos said modified proteins found within the MS lesions interacted with another protein to cause nerve damage.
Dr Petratos, from the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories, said the breakthrough was significant because there was currently no treatment to halt the disease.
"Once patients end up with the progressive form of multiple sclerosis, it cannot be stopped and the patients end up in wheelchairs," he told AAP.
"It can actually initiate death in patients as well."
He said once the disease's progression was stopped, the body's own immune system could then begin repairing the nerve damage.
"We define it as a 'hand brake'. It (the therapy) halts it, (and) then the body in its own right can actually repair."
Dr Petratos said the clinical method used to block the proteins had already been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration to treat other conditions.
"This should mean that clinical trials - once they start - will be fast-tracked," he said.
He said if clinical trials on humans started within a few years, it was hoped a therapy could be available in a decade.
Scientists from the University of Toronto and Yale University in the United States were also involved in the research.
MS onset often occurs in young adults, particularly females. The condition affects up to 20,000 Australians with 1000 new cases diagnosed annually.
It is estimated to cost the Australian community $1 billion a year.
