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DNA Vaccine May Treat Multiple Sclerosis

Posted by samzenpus on from the good-for-what-ails-you dept.

GSASoftware writes "Multiple sclerosis is a serious, as-yet incurable neurological disease which causes blindness, paralysis and other serious symptoms. In a new development, a neuroimmunology researcher in Montreal has developed a therapeutic DNA vaccine. The cause of the disease is not fully understood, but it appears to be auto-immune. If a DNA vaccine can be an effective therapy for this auto-immune disease, is it possible that DNA vaccines could treat other auto-immune diseases like Crohn's, eczema, and others?"

6 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Well, I am holding my breath by lordvalrole · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My mother has MS and I know others as well that have it. It is such a horrible disease. I hope this research continues and is a viable option and soon. Nothing is worse than seeing a parent or loved one just lose their abilities over a few years.

  2. Re:Always a possibility by dberstein · · Score: 5, Informative

    I suffer from MS; the last I heard of a vaccine was last year: they shut the study after a couple of patients died.

    This is are very interesting and promising news for me. Perhaps in a couple of years I won't need my daily anti-fatigue pills, weekly interferon beta 1a shots, and those occasional hospital corticoid shock treatments. Probably I'll never recover for the disabilities I've already got, but at least I won't develop any further because of MS!

  3. MS anecdonte by ookabooka · · Score: 4, Interesting

    First off, IANAD, though both my mother and aunt are. My aunt has fairly severe MS, she can't walk, lost some dexterity in her left arm, etc. What is interesting is that my mother is an identical twin, and doesn't suffer from MS at all. They did some experimental treatments utilizing this unique situation, one of which was some sort of combination of Chemo therapy and a bone marrow transplant. Does this vaccine simple get rid of some "risk factors" in the DNA? Obviously I'd find it hard to believe that there is a direct relationship between DNA and MS. . .

    --
    If you are about to mod me down, keep in mind that this post was most likely sarcastic.
    1. Re:MS anecdonte by 0123456789 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I remember a radio programme about identical twins a while ago. One of the things that fascinated me was that although identical twins have identical DNA, their active genes are not identical. Over time, the genes that are active vary between the two twins, as shown by comparing the gene sequences of pairs of identical twins at different ages. The variation was called something like 'Epygenetic modification'. Hopefully someone who knows more about this can comment?

  4. No it does not - how it works by backslashdot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Multiple sclerosis is when your immune system attacks a nerve's covering called myelin. What the vaccine does is it gets the immune system to stop targetting the myelin by causing a reduction in the T-cells that attack it. If it works as they say, and have demonstrated, it only reduces the number of T-cells that target the myelin protein, not other stuff.

  5. "DNA vaccine" by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_vaccination

    DNA is the active ingredient of the vaccine, if they mean what people usually mean by "DNA vaccine".

    To vaccinate against a pathogen, you'd take some gene from it that codes for a surface protein, inject that DNA into muscle cells, let them express it and produce the protein, and the immune system would learn to react.

    Which leaves plenty of confusion, since the goal of MS therapy would be to turn off the immune response to myelin, not to create an immune response.

    This isn't about gene therapy.