MSNews article

[Guest guest]

Did anyone see this MSNews article that came out yesterday:

" Antibodies to myelin proteins have been found in MS lesions and are thought

to be somehow involved in MS disease activity. However, it's unclear exactly

what role they play in causing or furthering myelin damage in MS. A team of

researchers recently posted an interesting paper (free public access!)

exploring this question further. They isolated serum antibodies to myelin

basic protein (MBP) from MS subjects, non-MS controls, and EAE mice and

analyzed their effects on MBP proteins. They found that the antibodies from

MS subjects and EAE mice (but not the controls) were actually able to

cleave, or break, the MBP chains, leading to degradation of the protein.

Additional tests were done to make sure this cleavage could be attributed to

the antibodies and not some other factor present in the assay, to see which

sites within the MBP chains were targeted for cleavage, and to determine

what types of biochemical pathways were involved in the degradation. The

researchers also discovered that Copaxone was able to block the antibodies

and prevent them from binding to MBP, thus preventing the damage. This study

represents progress in the understanding of how damage is caused in MS, and

leads to new lines of research such as the development of other treatments

which (like Copaxone) can block the activity of destructive auto antibodies

in MS. "

I'm thinking maybe we should think twice before stopping Copaxone...

Interesting, huh?

Rae