Autoimmunity is not just a theory in MS
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2011 7:01 pm
Since this seems like the only area on this site that openly talks about treatments for MS that rely on autoimmunity as the cause, I thought I would start a thread so that information can be presented in support of this.
I think this fits in with the heading of "stem cells" because this is the goal of treatments such as HSCT. The goal here is to restore immune tolerance and there is a great deal of research that supports this as the cause of MS as well as other autoimmune diseases.
To begin with, I have read a lot on this forum about how scientists have been working on the autoimmune theory for over a hundred years and it is time to look at other causes because they are not getting anywhere.
However, I think that the mechanisms of the immune system have only recently been started to be understood. Here is a good overview of the timeline of immunology:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_immunology
So you can see that really T-cells have only been recognized since the decade of the 1970's. And in addition the latest breakthrough in the immune system is the discovery of regulatory T-cells in the last decade.
Here are two good presentations on this new discovery that gives more details about these cells and how they are trying to be manipulated to control the immune system:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYHvVj2qaDE
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2565852/
So it seems that the immune system is a balance between effector cells that protect against immunity and cancers as well as regulatory mechanism such as Tregs to prevent autoimmunity:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 2809001404
So I believe that the HSCT procedure restores tolerance by resetting the tolerance balance.
Here is a recent article that touches on this for people who underwent HSCT with donor stem cells for the treatment of leukemia:
http://www.jci.org/articles/view/41072
So, I think that rebooting the immune system is the best approach currently available for curing MS as well as other autoimmune diseases.
But I would like this approach be as successful for people with primary progressive MS as it is in RRMS, but there needs to be more research to understand why this is not the case. Here is a recent article that describes some of the issues that might be related to this in terms of thymic function:
http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.o ... 3.abstract
So I hope this thread can be used to provide new information from new discoveries in the treatment of all forms of MS.
I think this fits in with the heading of "stem cells" because this is the goal of treatments such as HSCT. The goal here is to restore immune tolerance and there is a great deal of research that supports this as the cause of MS as well as other autoimmune diseases.
To begin with, I have read a lot on this forum about how scientists have been working on the autoimmune theory for over a hundred years and it is time to look at other causes because they are not getting anywhere.
However, I think that the mechanisms of the immune system have only recently been started to be understood. Here is a good overview of the timeline of immunology:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_immunology
So you can see that really T-cells have only been recognized since the decade of the 1970's. And in addition the latest breakthrough in the immune system is the discovery of regulatory T-cells in the last decade.
Here are two good presentations on this new discovery that gives more details about these cells and how they are trying to be manipulated to control the immune system:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYHvVj2qaDE
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2565852/
So it seems that the immune system is a balance between effector cells that protect against immunity and cancers as well as regulatory mechanism such as Tregs to prevent autoimmunity:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 2809001404
So I believe that the HSCT procedure restores tolerance by resetting the tolerance balance.
Here is a recent article that touches on this for people who underwent HSCT with donor stem cells for the treatment of leukemia:
http://www.jci.org/articles/view/41072
So, I think that rebooting the immune system is the best approach currently available for curing MS as well as other autoimmune diseases.
But I would like this approach be as successful for people with primary progressive MS as it is in RRMS, but there needs to be more research to understand why this is not the case. Here is a recent article that describes some of the issues that might be related to this in terms of thymic function:
http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.o ... 3.abstract
So I hope this thread can be used to provide new information from new discoveries in the treatment of all forms of MS.