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Replacing fatty acids may fight MS

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 11:07 pm
by MSUK
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By delving into the components of protective nerve coatings that get damaged in multiple sclerosis, scientists have identified a handful of lipid molecules that appear to be attacked by an immune system run amok.

Bolstering the supply of these lipids might help preserve these nerve coatings and, in the process, knock back the inflammation that contributes to their destruction, researchers report in the June 6 Science Translational Medicine.

In MS patients, rogue antibodies assault myelin, the fatty sheath that insulates nerves and facilitates signaling. Inflammation exacerbates the attack on myelin and the cells that make it. But other details of MS, including the roles of myelin lipids, have been less clearly understood.

“I think this is a very good study,” says Francisco Quintana, an immunologist at Harvard Medical School. “Overall, there are not many papers on lipids in MS. Technically, they are challenging and require a lot of expertise.”... Read More - http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm/fuseact ... ageid/3267

Re: Replacing fatty acids may fight MS

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 1:34 pm
by cheerleader
“There is a very real possibility that we can convert these observations into new drugs that could protect the brains of people with MS against damage,” said Steinman, a professor of neurology at Stanford University in California, in a June 4 telephone interview. “It opens up a whole new medicine cabinet of natural lipid compounds that are quite complex and no one had noticed them before. Certainly, unexpectedly, they have these protective guardian-like qualities.”

Steinman, who invented Tysabri, said the fatty acids tune down the inflammatory pathways after the damage to the brain has occurred, while Tysabri and Gilenya help block more harm from happening. Both drugs also come with serious, rare side effects. Steinman said the new approach with fatty acids may be safer than Tysabri, which generated $1.1 billion in sales (BIIB) last year.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-0 ... s-patients
:wink: a little dig from Dr. Steinman...

Here's more of the science...it's years away from development.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic ... y_fight_MS