Re: Italians make MS breakthrough

[Guest guest]

Wow, a!

Not an MD

I'll tell you where to go!

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

http://www.mayoclinic.org/rochester

s Hopkins Medicine

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org

[ ] Italians make MS breakthrough

>

> ITALIANS MAKE MS BREAKTHROUGH

>

> Healthy relatives could hold key to cure disease

> (ANSA) - Rome, April 19 - Italian scientists have made a breakthrough

> in multiple sclerosis research, showing that healthy relatives may

> hold the key to a long-elusive cure for the often devastating

> condition .

>

> The brains of healthy family members have similar lesions to their

> relatives with MS but their cerebral tissue seems to have reacted to

> protect itself, a team led by Giovanna Marrosu of Cagliari

> University and Nicola De Stefano of Siena University say .

>

> " At first sight the damage to the nerve-cell sheaths appears the

> same, " Marrosu said in a paper published in the ls of Neurology .

>

> " But once you look closer, you see that the MS sufferers have another

> set of fuzzier alterations, " she explained .

>

> " We already know the brain is able to repair itself. There's

> something in the healthy ones that protects the nervous system " .

>

> " Perhaps it has something to with a greater plasticity. Anyway, once

> we find out what it is we may have the key to eliminating the disease " .

>

> Marrosu and De Stefano studied some 400 individuals - half healthy,

> half with MS - for three years .

>

> They were all around 30-40, the typical age of onset of MS .

>

> At the end of the test period, only one of the healthy subjects had

> developed the disease and most of the sample had gone past the

> riskiest age .

>

> " We're pretty sure we can establish the differences between the

> healthy ones and their less fortunate relatives, " said De Stefano .

>

> " Those protective factors could spell the end of MS " .

>

> MS is a lifelong chronic disease diagnosed primarily in young adults,

> who retain a virtually normal life expectancy .

>

> Estimates suggest that there are 2.5 million people living with MS

> and that women are twice as likely to be affected than men. Persons

> living with MS describe changes in sensations, visual problems,

> muscle weakness, depression, loss of bladder control, dizziness, pain

> and difficulties with walking, clumsiness and halting speech .

>

> Scientists have learnt a great deal about MS in recent years. But its

> cause remains elusive. Many investigators believe MS to be an

> autoimmune disease - one in which the body, through its immune

> system, launches a defensive attack against its own tissues. The 'non-

> aggression pact' between the body and its immune system goes awry.

> The immune system wrongly identifies parts of the body as a foreign

> threat and declares war. In the case of MS, it is the nerve-

> insulating myelin that comes under assault. This may be linked to an

> unknown environmental trigger - a common virus called Epstein-Barr

> virus seems the likelist candidate. Multiple sclerosis can range from

> relatively benign to devastating, as communication between the brain

> and other parts of the body is disrupted. There are also different

> forms of the disease. Twenty years ago, MS sufferers faced a hopeless

> future of long confinement to a wheelchair within 30 years of

> diagnosis. However, in the last decade, treatment has changed

> dramatically. There is still no cure but disease-modifying drugs now

> slow the progression and control symptoms of the disease .

>

>

> http://ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2006-04-19_1196865.html