DNA Vaccine May Treat Multiple Sclerosis 127
GSASoftware writes "Multiple sclerosis is a serious, as-yet incurable neurological disease which causes blindness, paralysis and other serious symptoms. In a new development, a neuroimmunology researcher in Montreal has developed a therapeutic DNA vaccine. The cause of the disease is not fully understood, but it appears to be auto-immune. If a DNA vaccine can be an effective therapy for this auto-immune disease, is it possible that DNA vaccines could treat other auto-immune diseases like Crohn's, eczema, and others?"
MS anecdonte (Score:5, Interesting)
safe?, maybe, effective? too early to tell (Score:2, Interesting)
There is an extremely effective new therapy for MS that blocks immune cells (lymphocytes) from their normal "trafficking" through the brain. Since the lymphocytes are responsible for the neuronal damage that underlies MS, the symptoms of MS did not worsen in the vast majority of the thousands of patients who used the drug. Unfortunately, in a small number of patients, the lymphocytes are also responsible for controlling a virus that is latent in their brain. In some of these patients, the virus became active and some patients died before the cause was recognized. Here is a link [nih.gov] to the abstract of a free research paper that summarizes current understanding. I have no financial interest in the success of this drug (generic name = natalizumab [wikipedia.org], trade name = Tysabri).
Re:MS anecdonte (Score:2, Interesting)
It is thought that there are triggers for this. I had a friend that made it to 35 before MS started to take place...ended up getting mono and it was only after that that she start to see problems. There are doctors that say the epstein-barr virus is one of the MAJOR triggers for this disease.
For me, I have another auto-immune disease. Similar in reaction in the immune response, but attacking different parts...I had an accident that left me bed ridden for a few months, and never healed properly. Doctors couldn't figure out why something like that just wasn't healing...turns out my undiagnosed autoimmune was killing any repairs. A simple injection every few days got me out of bed. They tell me in my case that my body hit such a low that the disease was able to take over, and that if I had never had the accident, I probably would never have seen any symptoms.
"Obviously I'd find it hard to believe that there is a direct relationship between DNA and MS. .
And this is where your obvious belief is entirely wrong. The DNA creates the disposition, some people get it enough that it expresses itself on its own. Others need it and a combination of other external factors to express itself. We all know that almost every part of the human experience is both internal and external. You might have the genes to be a genius, but if you are adopted by ozark hillbillies living in a trash dump, you will most likely never express the genius genes (even if you end up 50% smarter than your siblings, that isn't a consolation).
Re:double entendre (Score:0, Interesting)
I'm afraid the statistics show otherwise... those who have sex before marriage (especially with other partners) are more likely to get "extramarital" than those who don't. It makes since, you get used to getting different partners, then you get "stuck" with one.
Abstinence is hands down the best policy, it will stop unwanted pregnancies (and therefore the many convenience abortions) and statistically you will be happier in your marriage.
Submitted Anonymously to protect my karma from closed-minded /. robots.
Re:MS anecdonte (Score:5, Interesting)
Cool work (Score:4, Interesting)
The vaccine is actually a virus. It doesn't say specifically in the article, but I suspect it's an adenovirus because they're pretty good for this kind of thing. The DNA sequence for the Myelin basic protein (MBP) is encoded into the virus. There are actually several variants of MBP and I'm curious if they're introducing just one variant or multiple variants. Anyway, MBP is involved in myelination of nerves. I don't think this part is well understood, but in studies of mice where the gene for myelin basic protein has been removed (mice with a certain gene or genes removed are called knockout mice), they develop diseases similar to MS.
Anyway, it's cool stuff and this kind of technology is really the future of treatment for a lot of diseases. There's a protein called p53 that's involved in the normal regulation of cell death and when the gene for P53 gets mutated, it can lead to cancer. p53 is implicated in roughly half of all cancers. One possible treatment is to come up with an virus with a normal p53 gene encoded in it and use that to turn the cancer cells back into normal cells that die properly. There are a host of other genetic based diseases where this kind of thing could be useful as well.
Re:No it does not - how it works (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Cool work (Score:3, Interesting)
X SNIP X
The vaccine is actually a virus.
What's odd, is that immunization with MBP can provoke an MS-like disease in mice of some strains. An abstract to an open-source paper is here [nih.gov]. So exactly how this is working as a therapeutic is (more than a little) obscure.
Re:Always a possibility (Score:2, Interesting)
Tysabri was pulled from the market in 2004 after two of the test subjects suffered from some sort of disorder that "turned their brains to mush" (Sarah's words). A further trial had no adverse results. She's had no new lesions and is currently asymptomatic.
Re:Always a possibility (Score:2, Interesting)