This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Here's an interesting article about a new study:

"Brain Cell Death May Cause Multiple Sclerosis":

http://www.healthline.com/health-news/b ... sis-121815

There's a lot in this article. For one thing it reminds me of a key aspect of the CCSVI theory: that demyelination precedes immune system activation in MS.

The article may also be interesting to people with progressive MS. And the following quote from the article is really telling about the pharmaceutical industry:

So when can people with MS expect to see this as a treatment option? Unless researchers can raise the necessary funds through private donations, trials in these MS treatments are not likely to happen right away. According to Miller, none of the large pharmaceutical companies they’ve spoken with are interested in this as a treatment for MS since “the market is so saturated with MS drugs already.”

This is laughable! I'm sure its true that the pharmaceutical companies are not interested in this new treatment, but the reason why is more likely to be because its a "One and Done" treatment! Here's a quote from the article link above:

In their experiment with mice, the treatment triggered production of immune regulatory cells that “remember” that myelin is no longer an enemy. With just a single infusion, the therapy prevented the development of the MS-like disease in most of the mice involved in the study and halted the disease process in others.

There's no profit motive for pharma in a treatment that stops MS in its tracks with one treatment. A treatment like that would make their existing blockbuster "disease modifying drugs" obsolete.

Here's the press release from Northwestern University about the study:

How MS Can Be Triggered By Brain Cell Death
http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/ ... death.html

Keep fighting the good fight and Happy Holidays everyone!

M.A.

I have observed that most of the new articles do not start saying that "MS is an autoimmune disease that ...". Instead they say things like "it is an inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease that ..."

Even if they do not speak openly about it, I think most of the researchers now think that myelin damage is just the last step in a long chain of processes, and probably some neuronal degeneration is the trigger of it all.

Probably the first damage is the subcortical gray matter lesions and the axonal transection, and later the NAWM (normal appearing white matter) lesional areas. After that, and only sometimes, the standard myelin lesions appear.

This article is a step forward in understanding the process. Thanks.

the full article (including a description and reference to their model of progressive MS) can be found using Googles "advance search" using the articles name ("Oligodendrocyte death results in immune-mediated CNS demyelination" from the publication issue) and a file type of PDF. I didn't include the direct link for possible copyright infringements. This technique has been successful for me many times, in finding a subscription only article.