This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Relapse in the first six months of treatment (and perhaps longer) seems to remain a possibility even where Chlamydia pneumoniae is the prime culprit. This may be because relapse is due to simultaneous local mass cell-death of oligodendrocytes, the cells which make and maintain myelin. There seems to be two immunological components which prompt this sudden cell-death: locally high levels of antibodies to a chlamydial protein, hsp60, and sudden high levels of the host-protein, gamma-interferon. Though the antibiotics prevent the germs from making hsp60, antibodies to it can take months to subside. Any acute viral infection (such as flu) can cause an elevation of gamma-interferon. So a window of vulnerability exists.