Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases say they've found a treatment that effectively suppresses the progression of an MS-like disease in monkeys. MS develops when the immune system mistakes nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord as foreign substances.
T cells attack when they are exposed to small amounts of an antigen.
In this case, the researchers say, the antigen is the protein that makes up the myelin sheaths. However, researcher Dr. Michael Lenardo discovered that when T cells come in contact with large amounts of an antigen they self-destruct. So, the researchers developed the new treatment to target only those T cells active against MS and make them self-destruct. Lenardo and his colleagues induced an MS-like disease in nine marmoset monkeys. For two weeks, three of the monkeys were given large amounts of myelin proteins, three got no treatment and the remaining three received a moderate dose of the antigen.