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University of Cambridge - study reveals possibility of reversing damage caused by MS

www.eurekalert.org

6 December 2010

Study reveals new possibility of reversing damage
caused by MS
Damage caused by multiple sclerosis could be reversed by activating stem cells that can
repair injury in the central nervous system, a study has shown.
Researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh have identified a
mechanism essential for regenerating insulating layers – known as myelin sheaths – that
protect nerve fibres in the brain. In additional studies in rodents, they showed how this
mechanism can be exploited to make the brain's own stem cells better able to regenerate
new myelin.
In multiple sclerosis, loss of myelin leads to the nerve fibres in the brain becoming
damaged. These nerve fibres are important as they send messages to other parts of the
body.
The scientists believe that this research will help in identifying drugs to encourage myelin
repair in multiple sclerosis patients.
Professor Robin Franklin, Director of the MS Society's Cambridge Centre for Myelin Repair
at the University of Cambridge, said: "Therapies that repair damage are the missing link in
treating multiple sclerosis. In this study we have identified a means by which the brain's
own stem cells can be encouraged to undertake this repair, opening up the possibility of a
new regenerative medicine for this devastating disease."
The study, funded by the MS Society in the UK and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society
in America, is published in Nature Neuroscience.
Professor Charles ffrench-Constant, of the University of Edinburgh's MS Society Centre for
Multiple Sclerosis Research, said: "The aim of our research is to slow the progression of
multiple sclerosis with the eventual aim of stopping and reversing it. This discovery is very
exciting as it could potentially pave the way to find drugs that could help repair damage
caused to the important layers that protect nerve cells in the brain."
Multiple sclerosis affects almost 100,000 people in the UK and several million worldwide. It
often targets young adults between the ages of 20 and 40.