MS ‘appears to originate in different part of brain’

[MSUK]

The search for the cause of multiple sclerosis has confounded researchers and medical professionals for generations, but Steven Schutzer, a physician and scientist at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, has now found an important clue why progress has been slow – it appears that most research on the origins of MS has focused on the wrong part of the brain...Read more - http://www.ms-uk.org/MSnews

[NHE]

What Schutzer found startled another of his co-investigators, Patricia K. Coyle of Stony Brook University in New York, one of the leading MS clinicians and researchers in the country. The proteins in the CSF of the new MS patients suggested physiological disruptions not only in the white matter of the brain where the myelin damage eventually shows up. They also pointed to substantial disruptions in the grey matter, a different part of the brain that contains the axons and dendrites and synapses that transfer signals between nerves.

Several scientists had in fact hypothesised that there might be grey matter involvement in early MS, but the technology needed to test their theories did not yet exist. Schutzer’s analysis, which Coyle calls “exquisitely sensitive,” provides the solid physical evidence for the very first time. It includes a finding that nine specific proteins associated with grey matter were far more abundant in patients who had just suffered their first attack than in longer term MS patients or in the healthy controls. “This evidence indicates grey matter may be the critical initial target in MS rather than white matter,” says Coyle. “We may have been looking in the wrong area.”

[1eye]

Oh, no! The wrong area? You mean there is a lot of damage besides white matter lesions? You mean we have been measuring efficacy against the wrong metric? Those $20B we have been spending on drugs isn't targeting the correct part of the brain?

Oh, well. Live and learn... At least we have overall atrophy, and disability... They must be related, right? And what about dem black holes? Grey matter or white? We'll get it right one day...

[Leonard]

I also believe demyelination is collateral damage.

The real problem is mitochondrial dysfunction and death.
Cells shrink because of that, that explains whole brain atrophy.

We are talking here disruptions in the grey matter, the axons and dendrites and synapses that transfer signals between nerves.
The equilibirum of the ion pump becomes more difficult to maintain, over time, which explains the motor dysfunction.

How come? I think it is because of oxidative stress. The prove is there.
Caused be the excessive B-cells.

The B-cells are EBV infected where the immune system stimulates their growth.
That is explained in http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK6235/
Search for: Herpesvirus—ERV Interaction: Does EBV Use a HERV for Stimulation of B Cell Growth?

[cheerleader]

Not sure why this is being linked here as "news"....this research came out of Rutgers in 2013.
http://news.rutgers.edu/research-news/m ... nsjoDbydIA

There are many of us who have been writing about the fact that it is loss of gray matter which matters--for several years now.
From 2011:
http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2011/12/g ... ber-8.html
cheer

[CureOrBust]

The real problem is mitochondrial dysfunction and death.
Cells shrink because of that, that explains whole brain atrophy.

My understanding of brain shrinkage/atrophy measurements using MRI, is that it is not a direct attempt to measure cell size, but of cell death. This is not to say that "sick" brain cells are not smaller in size, just that the number of cells decreases compared to a "healthy" brain.

[1eye]

Not sure why this is being linked here as "news"....this research came out of Rutgers in 2013.
cheer

yeah, I just post on MSUK "big news" threads mostly for fun...

[CureOrBust]

Not sure why this is being linked here as "news"....this research came out of Rutgers in 2013.
http://news.rutgers.edu/research-news/m ... nsjoDbydIA

There are many of us who have been writing about the fact that it is loss of gray matter which matters--for several years now.

I am only guessing, however, in the scientific community, preparing for presentation and publishing an article in a peer reviewed journal/publication is very different to blogging/writing about it or having it reported on by the campus media. The "news" is that it is now "published".

[cheerleader]

This research was published in 2013---
Here's the whole paper for free. I remembered reading it.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/articl ... ne.0066117

Gray matter atrophy, which is loss of axons, correlates to disabilities in MS
from the Cleveland Clinic in 2008

Gray matter tissue damage dominates the pathological process as MS progresses, and underlies neurological disabillity. Imaging correlates of gray matter atrophy indicate that mechanisms differ in RRMS and SPMS. These findings demonstrate the clinical relevance of gray matter atrophy in MS, and underscore the need to understand its causes.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18661561

here's more published info.
http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2011/12/g ... ber-8.html

cheer

[Brainteaser]

My personal experience may have relevance. I was dx in 1982 when my neurologist did a lumbar puncture to assess the CSF. The results were 90% likely to be MS. This test followed an incident of surface numbness to my hand and later my leg ie sensory only, rather than muscular/balance etc for the first 6 years. Isn't sensory a grey matter issue? Do they not still do lumbar punctures? My MS has progressed to muscular/balance problems suggesting also white matter issues?

[1eye]

My personal experience mirrors yours, except: I had the balance and muscular problems in 82. I had no numbness for another 7 years. In fact, it was a remission until 1989, when I got numbness, ulnar nerve. I was not dx in 82, as they had no MRI then. I had a cat scan instead, which showed nothing. What I had in 82, that was recognizable as a brain symptom, was intention tremor on the opposite side from the ulnar problem I got later. I think these were examples of pure luck. The ulnar (surface, hand) neuropathy was disabling (stopped me from playing guitar), and did appear later, but the intention tremor and dizziness was my first and only CIS event.