The drug was effective in both groups. Vaccinated rats subsequently lost only 4 percent of nerve cells in the retina, while unvaccinated rats lost 28 percent. The scientists theorize that Copaxone stimulates immune system T cells which protect nerve cells from glutamate toxicity. And they suggest a similar vaccine might provide a new way to prevent, or at least slow, glaucoma-related blindness in people. But the jury is still out on this approach and its target.
Autism is a neurological disorder that affects the development of social and language skills.
In the late 1990s, a British study first questioned whether the rise in immunization and autism rates, both in Britain and the U.S., could be connected. Furthermore, a 1999 report from the California Department of Developmental Services showed an increase in autism cases over the past two decades. Loring Dales, M.D., and colleagues from the Immunization Branch, California Department of Health Services, Berkeley, used immunization data for children born between 1980 and 1994 and searched for a correlation between the MMR immunization and onset of autism. It's mathematically impossible for there to be a correlation. Dales added that similar results have been reported in Great Britain and Sweden.