Brain drug target discovery in MS (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

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Comparison of 2,538 proteins from MS patients with those from healthy brains showed damage in two proteins not before linked to the disease.
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Study leader Professor Lawrence Steinman said this was the first large-scale study to search for defective proteins in MS lesions in the brain.

They found a few proteins peculiar to MS brain lesions.

But two in particular - tissue factor and protein C inhibitor - showed signs of damage during the chronic active stage of the disease.

These normally participate in the control of blood clotting and in anti-inflammatory pathways. The researchers guessed that the damaged proteins might be helping the progression of MS and, by using inhibitors of the proteins found they could successfully ameliorate the disease in mice.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7247420.stm

As always -- these are early results. Further studies needed.

[Redstone]

1. Whoa. And I just read about another promising new medicine in the newspaper

yesterday. Another "off-label" application for a drug that was developed for arthritis, but shows promise for recurring / remitting MS.

Some day. Some day, someone will find the key. We always have that hope, yes?

Redstone

[mike_c]

2. this is an awesome time to be a biologist....

I'm an organismal biologist-- an ecologist and an entomologist-- so much of what's happening in molecular biology is more-or-less just background stuff from my professional perspective, but I also teach courses in basic university biology for majors. It's incredibly exciting just being an appreciative observer in this field today. The pace of advancement is remarkable. During my lifetime we've gone from a semi-mystical view of "life" to being on the path toward understanding how living systems really work at mechanistic levels. What an awesome thing.

[fed-up]

3. my sis w/MS takes Acyclovir whenever she feels a herpes outbreak coming-usually stops attacks

of MS. She is somewhere between relapsing remitting and chronic progressive. She has had MS for over 20 years and right now is doing fairly well.

Studies have tied herpes and MS

and too tired to find links, but maybe this can help someone else