A new class of drugs completing clinical trials soon for rheumatoid arthritis should be examined as a treatment for multiple sclerosis, according to the authors of a University of Alabama at Birmingham study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The UAB study focused on a protein called “suppressor of cytokine signaling 3,” found in low levels among MS patients in relapse. With less SOCS3 to restrain it, rising levels of the protein STAT3 cause immune cells to release chemicals that strip the myelin coating from the brain’s nerve cells, which makes them less able to pass messages and causes symptoms from numbness to paralysis.
In a mouse model genetically engineered with low SOCS3 and high STAT3, a condition called experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), the mouse equivalent of MS, quickly developed. However, the research team reported that restored SOC3-signaling lowered STAT3 levels and reversed the disease.... Read More - http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm/fuseact ... ageid/3396
