This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Here is study just released on the blockage of leptin, a hormone. "Shayk" since you are the "hormone" expert on the site, have you came across this particular hormone before?


Blocking Leptin Helps Halt And Heal Multiple Sclerosis
Category: Multiple Sclerosis News
Article Date: 13 Jan 2006 - 11am (UK)


Italian researchers have found that blockade of the hormone leptin, which is primarily produced in fats cells, has beneficial effects on the induction and progression of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in mice - the animal model of human multiple sclerosis (MS). In their study appearing online on January 12 in advance of print publication in the February 2006 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Giuseppe Matarese and colleagues from Università di Napoli "Federico II" suggest that leptin neutralization may be a potential way to both prevent and treat MS.

MS is an inflammatory disease of the brain and spinal chord characterized by muscle weakness, numbness, and loss of coordination. These symptoms result in part from destruction of the nerve-insulating material myelin by activated T cells.

Leptin is known to play a critical role in the regulation of food intake, metabolism, and the immune response. Since it had been previously shown that leptin is expressed in active inflammatory lesions of the central nervous system during EAE and MS, Matarese and colleagues investigated the effects of leptin blockade on the induction and progression of EAE in mice. They found that leptin blockade by the use of either anti-leptin antibodies or a form of the leptin receptor unable to bind leptin, either before or after disease onset improved clinical symptoms of disease, slowed disease progression, reduced disease relapses, and reduced the number of antigen-specific T cells. The authors delved further to unravel the cellular signaling events underlying these beneficial effects. Taken together, the data provide a basis for the development and testing of novel strategies of leptin-based targeting for the potential treatment of MS.

TITLE: Leptin neutralization interferes with pathogenic T cell autoreactivity in autoimmune encephalomyelitis

AUTHOR:
Giuseppe Matarese
Università di Napoli "Federico II", Napoli, Italy.

Shayk - can you give us some feedback? This sounds very promising to me.

Sharon (from Colorado)

Sorry everyone - I did not realize that Bromley had posted this research previously under the subject line "Another Cure"

Hi Sharon

Unfortunately I really can’t shed much light on this at all. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even know leptin was a hormone until I read this study. I’ve read some about the “stress” hormone cortisol which I personally think may be a big culprit in MS. High levels of cortisol have been associated with “Metabolic Syndrome”, which it turns out, has been linked with leptin.

Metabolic Syndrome
Glucocorticoid Metabolism and the Metabolic Syndrome



Relationship Between Leptin and Metabolic Syndrome in Elderly Women

I’m all in favor of reducing high levels of the stress hormone cortisol to help manage MS but I really no nothing about blocking leptin. On the surface it does seem some sort of connection between leptin and high levels of cortisol is certainly possible given that both have been linked to "Metabolic Syndrome". Sorry I can't offer any more on the topic.

It’s nice to see you posting Sharon. Maybe LyndaCarol, LisaBee or someone else far more knowledgeable than I am on the topic will comment.

shayk

So, here's the question....

What makes the fat cells secrete leptin?

Are they more likely to secrete leptin when they're hungry? OR when they're satisfied and well-fed?

This question concerns me because I work hard to keep my weight "normal". Last year I worked out 4-5 days a week and followed a reduced-calorie diet; I lost forty pounds, had a resting heart rate of 59 and looked great. The day I went in to see my neurologist for the first time I took my weight-training book with me... I was reading it in his exam room when I met him. Clearly, yes, I had vertigo--for which I'd had an MRI--but I was healthy.

Imagine my shock when he told me I had definite MS.

Anyway... I still work to keep my weight down. I'm hungry, but I control myself.

Does this mean that although my weight is normal, my leptin levels are high? And that this is possibly damaging my brain...?

Lol, oh well... mice, rats, rats, mice. Maybe it's all just a lot of rodentia.