WHILE a cure for multiple sclerosis remains elusive, silencing key messengers
of the immune system might halt and even reverse its debilitating symptoms.
Several groups are now developing drugs to do this after promising tests in
animals.
MS is a result of immune cells attacking the protective myelin sheath that
coats nerves in the brain and spinal cord, causing a variety of symptoms such as
numbness, weakness and paralysis. What triggers this autoimmune reaction still
isn’t known.
But studies have shown that the cerebrospinal fluid in MS sufferers often
contains abnormally high levels of certain chemical signals called chemokines.
These…
