A cellular signal is thought to worsen the symptoms of MS, say researchers, who have zeroed in on a genetic approach that holds promise in the development of novel strategies
A cellular signal is thought to worsen the symptoms of MS, say researchers, who have zeroed in on a genetic approach that holds promise in the development of novel strategies to treat this severe neurological disease, for which a concrete cure is not yet in place.
The study has indicted that an exercise to effectively impede the protein that is in charge of managing the signal, might be the key to unlock a new strategy to treat Multiple Sclerosis. Italian and German scientists worked on one important molecule, behind MS, which is called NF-kB. They investigated the effects of blocking this molecule in mice that portrayed MS like symptoms.Pasparakis, a former Group Leader at EMBL's Mouse Biology Unit said, “ We have known for a long time that NF-kB is crucially involved in MS, but until now it was not clear if it was friend or foe.”
The findings revealed that there was a certain reduction in MS symptoms, which is thought to relate to a reduced amount of inflammatory messengers emanating in the brain.
In the words of Pasparakis, "This was quite a challenge because NF-kB is involved in many crucial processes throughout the entire body, and shutting down its activation in all cells kills the mouse before it is born. To observe the effect of NF-kB in MS, we used sophisticated genetic techniques to generate mice that do not express IKK2 and NEMO in brain cells only."
