A DRUG designed thirty years ago to treat multiple sclerosis might suppress a
whole range of autoimmune diseases. It produces a shift in the immune system
that counteracts the way the body turns on itself, say researchers in the
US.
The body can mount two distinct types of immune response: Th1 or Th2. The two
are antagonistic—signals that stimulate one inhibit the other and vice
versa. In multiple sclerosis, an inflammatory, Th1-type response destroys
proteins in the myelin sheath that covers nerves.
In 1967, researchers in Israel synthesised a drug made from amino acids found
in myelin basic protein.…
