This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

A tuberculosis vaccine in use for 90 years may help reverse Type 1 diabetes and eliminate the life- long need for insulin injections, say Harvard University researchers raising money to conduct large, human studies.

Faustman and her colleagues at Massachusetts General in Boston are working to get the vaccine to market. After their early findings in studies with mice, she said they tried to interest every major drugmaker in developing the vaccine as a possible cure for diabetes. All told her there wasn’t enough money to be made in a cure that used an inexpensive, generically available vaccine, Faustman said.

So now, she is trying to raise money to pay for the expensive larger human trials. Her lab so far has received $11 million of the $25 million needed to pay for the next stage of testing. All of the money is coming from private donors, the largest of which is the Iacocca Family Foundation.

The vaccine’s ability to raise levels of cell-killing TNF also is being studied as a way to treat multiple sclerosis. In a study in Italy, researchers found the vaccine may prevent progressions of brain lesions in patients with advanced stages of MS, Faustman said.

This article is about a potential inexpensive vaccine based cure for diabetes that is being rejected by the pharmaceutical companies because it will not bring them enough money, but the vaccine may also help treat MS, and the article relates to CCSVI by speaking to why "the powers that be" may be dragging their feet on CCSVI, and/or actively working to block access to/acceptance of CCSVI.

26.Ristori G, Buzzi MG, Sabatini U, Giugni E, Bastianello S, et al. (1999) Use of Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) in multiple sclerosis. Neurology 53: 1588–1589. Find this article online

27.Paolillo A, Buzzi MG, Giugni E, Sabatini U, Bastianello S, et al. (2003) The effect of Bacille Calmette-Guerin on the evolution of new enhancing lesions to hypointense T1 lesions in relapsing remitting MS. Journal of Neurology 250: 247–248. Find this article online

31.Enayati PJ, Papadakis KA (2005) Association of Anti-tumor Necrosis Factor Therapy With the Development of Multiple Sclerosis. J Clin Gastroenterol 39: 303–306. Find this article online

32.Sicotte NL, Voskuhl RR (2001) Onset of multiple sclerosis associated with anti-TNF therapy. Neurology 57: 1885–1888. Find this article online

51.Allcock RJN, de la Concha EG, Fernandez-Arquero M, Vigil P, Conejero L, et al. (1999) Susceptibility to multiple sclerosis mediated by HLA-DRB1 is influenced by a second gene telomeric of the TNF cluster. Human Immunology 60: 1266–1273. Find this article online

54.Wandinger KP, Sturzebecher CS, Bielekova B, Detore G, Rosenwald A, et al. (2001) Complex immunomodulatory effects of interferon-beta in multiple sclerosis include the upregulation of T helper 1-associated marker genes. Annals of Neurology 50: 349–357. Find this article online