Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Vaccine Against Multiple Sclerosis? Mouse Experiment Yields Promising Results

vaccination
ScienceDaily (Dec. 3, 2008) — Some 80,000 people in Germany suffer from multiple sclerosis – their immune system attacks and destroys healthy nerve tissue. Researchers at the Heidelberg University Hospital and the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg have succeeded in vaccinating mice with specially treated, autologous immune cells and preventing them from developing encephalitis, which is similar to multiple sclerosis in humans.

A protein of the nervous system, that is the target of the harmful immune reaction in multiple sclerosis, was placed on the surface of the cells; the cells were treated with an agent that suppresses immune defense.

The Heidelberg researchers have published their results, initially online, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.

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