We regret that we cannot respond to personal or general health questions. If information presented here seems pertinent to your situation, please seek help from a qualified health care professional near you. By identifying the trigger mechanism that causes the body's immune system to attack the fatty tissue called myelin which insulates nerves, researchers hope they can stop it. He is looking at normal constituents of the myelin membrane as trigger suspects and determined that a group of compounds called glycolipids, composed primarily of sugars and fats, are one likely candidate. Utilizing the same principle as a vaccination injecting a small amount of a harmless, dead virus so the immune system will mount a protective response to that virus Dr. Yu has immunized laboratory animals with glycolipids.
Early results show that the animals develop a multiple sclerosis-like condition.
These animals may prove to be a model for further study of the disease that impacts the multiple layers of the fatty myelin that insulate nerves throughout the central nervous system, greatly increasing nerve conduction and preventing leakage of electrical current. Without myelin, nerves become inefficient and ineffective. Myelin formation begins before birth and continues through adolescence, Dr. Yu said. Patients with multiple sclerosis experience a destruction of myelin that often surfaces with difficulty seeing, because the optic nerves are affected, and can eventually lead to a loss of body control. Neurons are not affected, so the disease does not impact intelligence.