We find the following story exciting AND timely. There has been much talk in our discussion boards lately regarding a bacterial infection being the source/antagonist for at least some subtype of MS.

Below, find a new study that links Crohn's disease, an autoimmune disorder of the gastrointestinal tract, to a bacterial infection! MS and Crohn's are linked not only because of the autoimmune disease classification, but also in therapies: Antegren was shown succesful in treating Crohn's, and there is a Low Dose Naltrexone trial currently underway for Crohn's as well. And recently, minocycline (a common antibiotic), has shown promise in small trials as an MS therapy... all of these are potentially immunomodulatory, so the beneficial action is not necessarily from killing bacteria, but the possibility is there.

Connecting the dots -- could this be the missing link? Is the evidence mounting that an infection causes some subset of cases with MS in genetically susceptible individuals, and more importantly that some sort of antibiotic treatment could be the answer? No implications are raised in the research JUST YET. Stay tuned (and keep your eyes on the discussion forum where literally great science is happening right before your eyes)... we're getting there people and much thanks to our incredible community! :)

"A bacterium that causes intestinal illness in cattle and sheep could also be responsible for Crohn's disease, researchers said on Friday...

[We] believe it is due to a bacterium called MAP...

"We discovered the bacteria in the blood of Crohn's patients. This is the first time anyone has done that,"...

"There is strong evidence that this bacteria may be responsible for Crohn's disease."

Click "read more" for the full article...

Note: The introduction has been edited to introduce some important counter-arguments to the conclusion that bacteria is the root cause of MS. Thanks to our community member Felly for pointing them out.

In France in 1996, 200 cases of MS were reported directly following a round of Hepatitis B vaccinations. Since that point, many theories have emerged linking the Hepatitis B vaccination with the onset of Multiple Sclerosis, but the following study is the first to directly demonstrate it. The risk must be kept in context however, and the study does not show the important distinction of whether the vaccine causes MS in people who would otherwise never have developed it, or instead worsens/hastens MS in people who already had it (but did not know they did). Read on...

"Children who are vaccinated against hepatitis B appear to have a greater risk of developing multiple sclerosis, a new study suggests.

But the researchers themselves caution that there is no evidence the vaccine -- usually given to students around Grade 4 -- actually causes MS in young people who would otherwise not develop it.

"Our study cannot distinguish whether the vaccine hastens the onset of MS in persons destined to develop the disease years later, or whether it causes new cases of MS in susceptible individuals," [and furthermore]...

Click "read more" for the article text...

A new research study out of the University of Pennsylvania shows that carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning causes an autoimmune reaction that attacks myelin. Myelin loss, of course, is a hallmark condition of Multiple Sclerosis. While no formal link is drawn between CO poisoning and onset of MS, the researchers do point out that CO poisoning causes the same changes to a fundamental component of myelin as that which is seen in MS-- and that these changes in both cases are thought to provoke the immune system to view the myelin as "bad" and attack it.

Maybe CO poisoning is one of those "environmental triggers" that causes the disease in genetically susceptible people?
Read on:

"CO poisoning is the leading cause of injury and death by poisoning worldwide, with about 40,000 people treated in the U.S. annually. Brain damage occurs - days to weeks later - in half of the patients with a serious case of CO poisoning...

The physiological causes of this delayed decline were not well understood until now...[research reveals that] CO causes profound changes in myelin basic protein (MBP) - a major protein constituent of myelin, the protective sheath surrounding neurons. Using an animal model, they showed that the CO-induced changes in MBP set into motion an autoimmune response in which lymphocytes, triggered to eliminate altered MBP, continue to attack normal MBP...

“These changes in MBP have also been demonstrated in multiple sclerosis, which is why we paralleled the study along those lines,” says Thom.

Thom says that overall this work suggests that the 50 percent or more of patients who develop brain damage following severe CO poisoning may do so, in large part, due to an autoimmune reaction..."

Click "read more" for the full story...

This is a follow up on the Epstein-Barr (commonly known as mono, or kissing disease) virus story below. They focus on kids with MS because it comes about as close to showing what  'blank slate' MS patient look like as possible. The comment about the virus looking like myelin is particularly interesting...

"Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) have shown an association between paediatric multiple sclerosis (MS) and the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), indicating that exposure to the virus at a certain time in childhood may be an important environmental trigger for the development of MS...

We think the Epstein-Barr virus plays an important role in the development of MS, as the genetic code of the virus contains sequences that are identical to genetic sequences in the myelin basic protein, which is expressed in the brain, and destroyed in MS. It is conceivable that the immune system mounts a response to that genetic sequence in EBV, then sees it in myelin and targets it as well," added Dr. Banwell...

This new study supports a link between a late exposure to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV, popularly known as Mono) and MS...

"OBJECTIVE: To assess Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) seroconversion in a high multiple sclerosis (MS) prevalence area and to evaluate the recall of diagnosed infectious mononucleosis in MS patients...

CONCLUSION: During or after puberty, EBV is transmitted to a major proportion of the population in an MS high-prevalence area. Together with our previous documentation of an association between late infection with EBV and an increased risk of developing MS, these data support a role of EBV infection in MS."

Click "read more" for the full abstract.