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Interesting article I have just come across:

McGill/JGH researchers successfully reverse multiple sclerosis in animals - New immune-suppressing treatment forces the disease into remission in mice

A new experimental treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) completely reverses the devastating autoimmune disorder in mice, and might work exactly the same way in humans, say researchers at the Jewish General Hospital Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and McGill University in Montreal.

MS is an autoimmune disease in which the body's own immune response attacks the central nervous system, almost as if the body had become allergic to itself, leading to progressive physical and cognitive disability.

The new treatment, appropriately named GIFT15, puts MS into remission by suppressing the immune response. This means it might also be effective against other autoimmune disorders like Crohn's disease, lupus and arthritis, the researchers said, and could theoretically also control immune responses in organ transplant patients. Moreover, unlike earlier immune-supppressing therapies which rely on chemical pharamaceuticals, this approach is a personalized form of cellular therapy which utilizes the body's own cells to suppress immunity in a much more targeted way.

GIFT15 was discovered by a team led by Dr. Jacques Galipeau of the JGH Lady Davis Institute and McGill's Faculty of Medicine. The results were published August 9 in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine.

GIFT15 is composed of two proteins, GSM-CSF and interleukin-15, fused together artificially in the lab. Under normal circumstances, the individual proteins usually act to stimulate the immune system, but in their fused form, the equation reverses itself.

"You know those mythical animals that have the head of an eagle and the body of a lion? They're called chimeras. In a lyrical sense, that's what we've created," said Galipeau, a world-renowned expert in cell regeneration affiliated with the Segal Cancer Centre at the Jewish General and McGill's Centre for Translational Research. "GIFT15 is a new protein hormone composed of two distinct proteins, and when they're stuck together they lead to a completely unexpected biological effect."

This effect, explained Galipeau, converts B-cells -- a common form of white blood cell normally involved in immune response -- into powerful immune-suppressive cells. Unlike their better-known cousins, T-cells, naturally-occurring immune-suppressing B-cells are almost unknown in nature and the notion of using them to control immunity is very new.

"GIFT15 can take your normal, run-of-the-mill B-cells and convert them -- in a Superman or Jekyll -Hyde sort of way -- into these super-powerful B-regulatory cells," Galipeau explained. "We can do that in a petri dish. We took normal B-cells from mice, and sprinkled GIFT15 on them, which led to this Jekyll and Hyde effect.

"And when we gave them back intravenously to mice ill with multiple sclerosis, the disease went away."

MS must be caught in its earliest stages, Galipeau cautioned, and clinical studies are needed to test the treatment's efficacy and safety in humans. No significant side-effects showed up in the mice, he said, and the treatment was fully effective with a single dose.

"It's easy to collect B-cells from a patient," he added. "It's just like donating blood. We purify them in the lab, treat them with GIFT15 in a petri dish, and give them back to the patient. That's what we did in mice, and that's what we believe we could do in people. It would be very easy to take the next step, it's just a question of finding the financial resources and partnerships to make this a reality."

Anyone know anything about these guys? Come on...someone on this site always knows:-)

This came out last August. Anyhow, this is the email I sent my husband about this:

This was all over the three major news wires I look at daily/hourly/minute-by-minute.

My conclusion: Bull plop!

There are several reasons NOT to get excited about this. e.g. Did you know the new 2010 Chevy Volt will give you 240 mpg? Yeah, but a) it costs 40k, b) you can only go 40 miles at once, c) it takes three hours to recharge, and d) you are still burning coal for the electricity - look at diesel if you want a more earth-friendlier fuel.

You see:

A) this worked in mice - how I wish I was a mouse since researchers have cured this in mice a number of times before

B) the researcher says this MUST be caught early - I am no longer in the early stages

C) this does not reverse existing damage; although no side effects seen (in mice how do you measure depression?)

D) only one treatment may be needed. However, how do you keep it from recurring?

E) this is preclinical. Call me when, no, IF this is FDA approved in the next ten years.

F) the researcher has said he needs commercial funding.

At least SOMEONE is interested in working on this orphan disease.

Thanks, anyhow.

I agree itsjustme. Well it's not just you. You have some good points there and many more that can be added.
... I would never` trust these idiots to mess around with my immune system.

oh, BTW how do they find mice with MS ?
How ?

Daisy3
Thank you for posting this information.
Lori

I was at a neurobiology lunch lecture today at Cornell University (yes, I really AM that much of a geek!) and I was asking the professor in question (who worked with zebrafish and neuron regeneration) if he has done any work with demyelination processes. He told me that there is a scientist at Stanford who is doing some work with demyelination in mice, as his wife has a demyelination disorder. Who knows...maybe something useful will come out of his research! <keeping fingers crossed>

http://ms.about.com/b/2009/08/26/gift15 ... erosis.htm

A more level headed overview.

Each time I start writing a reply for this thread I get interrupted!

Now..the door is shut and the 'do not disturb' sign is on:-)

Itsjustme: your post made me laugh. And yes, its great for the rats that they can cure MS in them...what about people!!

Loriyas: you are welcome:-)

All in all I do find people round here know about nearly everything, but I don't, so I find the comments handy..

Thanks guys!

Well, it was the researchers that induced EAE (not MS) to the mice and then cured it. They could have not induced it at all, in the first place. And what an arrogant expression: "reverse MS". Yikes!

Like it is said in my country, "John treats, John drinks!"

sou

The first problem: No one has yet definitively discovered exactly what causes MS. Autoimmne is a "theory"...

Technically stupid: if you stop (or kill or bare, or disorient - whatever) auto-immune cells to eat the CNS - AND re-supply a truckload of new cells to regenerate myelin/nerve cells/whatever's missing; it is bound to do something no??

But I'm pretty binary; :/