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New Study Pinpoints Four Novel Immune Culprits and May Lead to More Personalized Treatment Approaches for Individuals with MS

May 9, 2022

Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden collaborated with others in Europe to uncover four newly identified protein targets of the immune response that causes nervous system damage in multiple sclerosis. Using blood samples from people with MS and controls without MS, the team compared how their immune cells reacted to 63 proteins that were active in the brain and spinal cord but had not previously been linked to MS disease activity. Four proteins emerged as targets for the immune cells, and these findings were further validated in samples from two more study groups of people with MS.

The method used in this study opens the door for identifying specific immune system reactions that may differ among individuals with MS. This could lead to the possibility of disease activity profiles that could be targeted more precisely with customized treatment approaches. This study was funded by the Foundation of Swedish MS Research, among others.

Read more, from Karolinska Institutet

Read the paper, in Science Advances
 

About Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system. Symptoms range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis, and there is currently no cure for MS. The progress, severity and specific symptoms of MS in any one person cannot yet be predicted, but advances in research and treatment are leading to better understanding and moving us closer to a world free of MS. An estimated 1 million people live with MS in the United States. Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, and it affects women three times more than men.

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