Researchers have identified an antibody found in about half
of patients with multiple sclerosis that is not found in people without MS. This
discovery may be the key to future diagnosis and possibly future treatments that
would prevent the antibody from causing harm to the nervous system.
However, the antibody’s presence is not yet fully
understood. But in research with mice, they have discovered that the antibody
binds to and harms the brain cells that are know to be important to
neurological function, according to these recent research.
“We
have known for a long time that antibodies were involved in the destruction of
nervous system tissue in MS, but we have not had a good handle on what the
target was for these antibodies," said Timothy Coetzee, chief
research officer for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, who was not
involved in the study. "What this research has identified is what might be a
potential trigger or target in MS."
The
study is published in the July 12 issue of the New England
Journal of Medicine.
In
this recent study researchers screened the blood serum of two sets of patients
with multiple sclerosis and compared it to the patients without MS, the results
came to a stunning surprise. About 47% of the nearly 400 people that where
tested with MS had high levels of KIR4.1 antibodies.
Scientist also found that none of the patients without multiple sclerosis had any KIR4.1
antibodies. Coming to the conclusion that only people with multiple sclerosis
contain this antibody in their nervous system.
Then rodents where injected with KIR4.1 antibodies and found that KIR4.1 harmed the brain tissue and altered the immune response in the region the antibodies was injected.
"If this is truly the target of the immune response, this could pave the way to other therapies for MS," said senior study author Dr. Bernhard Hemmer, professor of neurology at Technische Universitat in Munich.
Dr. Emmanuelle Waubant, professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, and director of the UCSF Multiple Sclerosis Center, called the results exciting yet preliminary.
"In this case, researchers had a large number of participants," she said. "Nearly half of them had the antibody, and the protein in the brain identified as a target for this antibody is known to be important for nerve functioning."
Still one question is yet to be answered: The patients with KIR4.1 will they turn out better or more poorly than others without KIR4.1 antibodies?
Source: Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre
