Breakthrough in MS possible with new research, 2012
30.01.2012
Professor Robin Franklin, Cambridge University
A discovery that ageing nerve fibres can be rejuvenated by young cells
may have important implications for treating multiple sclerosis (MS),
scientists said today.
MS occurs when the immune system destroys myelin, the fatty insulating
layer that protects nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord.
Symptoms can range from mild numbness and tingling to vision loss and crippling paralysis.
Early in the disease, the myelin can repair itself to some extent and maintain normal nerve function.
However as the patient ages, this ability - known as remyelination - is
increasingly lost, making treatment much more difficult. Less myelin is
restored until nerve fibres are permanently destroyed.
The new study on mice shows that the age-associated decline of
remyelination can be reversed.
When old mice were exposed to immune cells taken from the blood of young
mice, the myelin covering their spinal cord nerve fibres began to
regenerate.
The discovery could pave the way to new therapies for MS, according to
the British and US scientists whose work is reported online today in the
journal Cell Stem Cell.
Professor Robin Franklin, director of the MS Society’s Cambridge Centre
for Myelin Repair at Cambridge University, said: "What we have shown in
our study... is that the age-associated decline in remyelination is
reversible.
"We found that remyelination in old adult mice can be made to work as efficiently as it does in young adult mice.
"For individuals with MS, this means that in theory regenerative therapies will work throughout the duration of the disease.
"Specifically, it means that remyelination therapies do not need to be
based on stem cell transplantation since the stem cells already present
in the brain and spinal cord can be made to regenerate myelin -
regardless of the patient’s age."
MS affects around 100,000 people in the UK, 400,000 in the US and several million worldwide.
In the study, small patches of spinal cord myelin were artificially destroyed in old mice, mimicking the effects of MS.
Those areas were then exposed to "macrophage" immune cells taken from the blood of young mice.
The immune cells helped resident stem cells to manufacture new myelin and repair the damage.
This was partly the result of the macrophages clearing away myelin
debris caused by the original injury. Previous studies have shown that
such debris impedes the regeneration process.
US author Dr Amy Wagers, from Harvard University in Boston, said:
"Ageing impairs regenerative potential in the central nervous system.
"This impairment can be reversed, however, suggesting that the eventual
development of cell-based or drug-based interventions that mimic the
rejuvenation signals found in our study could be used therapeutically."
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