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Novel Molecule May be Used to Track and Treat MS

December 19, 2018

Scientists at Purdue used a novel approach to show that a molecule called acrolein is elevated in blood and urine from mice with MS-like disease and from people with MS, compared to those without the disease. Acrolein is normally a waste product, but seems to accumulate in people with neurologic disease, becoming toxic to nerve cells. They are now testing whether acrolein levels correlate with disease activity, to determine whether this molecule may eventually be used to identify MS with a simple blood test. Medications targeting acrolein are already on the market, raising its potential as a therapeutic target for MS.

Read more in Purdue University News

Read the paper in Frontiers in Neurology

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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