New research to look for viral cause of PPMS
Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 7:18 am
A team of investigators from the University of Utah has received a two-year, $275,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund novel research that may help to uncover a viral cause for the most acute and severe form of multiple sclerosis.
These studies will use an advanced technology called deep sequencing to analyze brain tissue from patients who died of primary progressive multiple sclerosis.
Multiple sclerosis (MS), which affects an estimated 2.5Million people world-wide and 400,000 people in the United States, is an autoimmune disease that leads to nerve damage in the brain and spinal cord. This damage is caused by inflammation that occurs when the body's own immune system attacks the myelin sheath, a fatty protective covering that surrounds nerve cells. Loss of myelin affects the ability of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord to conduct the electrical signals needed for them to communicate with each other. To date, it is not known what prompts the damaging inflammation, but many investigators believe there is an environmental trigger, possibly a viral or other infection.... Read More - http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm/fuseact ... ageid/1680