come on:) i know youve been reading about it, what the general vibe?
I have a good feeling about this one, but then again this happens to me at least 4 times a month when i jump on a new band wagon.
Hi Raymond,
Actually, I’d not been reading about it, and this was the first I’d heard, so I had to Google.
At first, I thought it was the name of a prospective new treatment, but it turns out it’s a blood-clotting agent that occurs naturally, in the body.
Apparently, a recent study has suggested that leakage of this across the blood-brain barrier, into the brain, might be responsible for very early damage, which is a precursor to the conventional clinical signs of MS.
But I note that so far, this has only been shown in mice, which don’t actually get MS, but a lab-induced simulation. So whilst I find this research “interesting”, I think it’s too early to get excited yet. A mouse with an MS lookalike isn’t a human with MS, and it’s not certain the theory will translate to humans.
Even if it was confirmed to be true in humans, it would take years of drug development and testing before there was anything on the shelf, ready for use, to exploit it. I’m not pooh-poohing the research; it seems worthy of further exploration. But many of these promising leads come to nothing. I watch research news with interest, but I’ve learnt not to get excited that anything is “round the corner”. I don’t personally think MS will be cured in my lifetime (I’m 46). But I hope I might live to see light at the end of the tunnel for generations that will come after me.
Tina
About these mice with MS (if I`ve got that right), if the lab gives them MS, then they obviously know how to make MS happen. So if they know that, why cant they say what has caused MS in people/ or is my simple mind too simple to see that?
luv Pollx
Hi Poll,
That’s just it: the mice don’t have MS. They have an artificially induced condition resembling it, which can be useful for study purposes. It’s actually called experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis: the “experimental” part indicating that this does not occur in nature.
They give it to the mice by injecting them with myelin, which induces brain inflammation. But obviously, none of the human MSers have ever been accidentally (or deliberately) injected with myelin, so we can rule that out as the cause. There must be some natural process that produces similar results, but we don’t know what it is.
T.
x
LoL! “Kinda geddit” sounds like “Not really”? 
I suppose another way of putting it would be that we CAN induce something very like MS in the laboratory.
However, the way that we do it is not something that could have happened to a person, so the trigger in people must be different.
Does that help?
T.
x
what yous are sayin is so true and what a bummer, i always forget that ms in mice is not that same thing. like to hear a good theory though hope its true anyway.
Anitra- you make good sense but i am hoping that you are wrong about ms, i am of the opinion that we are at most 10-20 years away from a potential cure, keep hangin in there, soon my friend x