Tag Archives: multiple sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis Study Reveals How Killer T Cells Learn to Recognize Nerve Fiber Insulators

Misguided killer T cells may be the missing link in sustained tissue damage in the brains and spines of people with multiple sclerosis, findings from the University of Washington reveal. Cytoxic T cells, also known as CD8+ T cells, are white blood cells that normally are in the body’s arsenal to fight disease.

Multiple sclerosis is characterized by inflamed lesions that damage the insulation surrounding nerve fibers and destroy the axons, electrical impulse conductors that look like long, branching projections. Affected nerves fail to transmit signals effectively. (more…)

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Lab Studies Show Promise for New Multiple Sclerosis Treatment

Successfully treating and reversing the effects of multiple sclerosis, or MS, may one day be possible using a drug originally developed to treat chronic pain, according to Distinguished Professor Linda Watkins of the University of Colorado at Boulder. 

Watkins and her colleagues in CU-Boulder’s department of psychology and neuroscience discovered that a single injection of a compound called ATL313 — an anti-inflammatory drug being developed to treat chronic pain — stopped the progression of MS-caused paralysis in rats for weeks at a time.  (more…)

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