MS vaccine testing to start in US (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

A US company is set to begin a trial of a vaccine which it claims halts the progress of multiple sclerosis.

PharmaFrontiers is to test its tailor-made vaccine on 100 patients with MS, after a small-scale study showed promise, New Scientist reports.

MS experts have welcomed the research but urged caution because other vaccines have not been successful.

The degenerative disease attacks the nervous system and affects 2.5m people worldwide, of which 1% die each year.

In MS, immune cells destroy the myelin sheath - a protective layer - that surrounds nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord and enables them to transmit impulses.
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4787430.stm

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Oh, how I hope it works...

Too late for my dear Khashka, though...:cry:

[kickysnana]

2. Demylination of UNKNOWN origin. How the hell can they make or approve a vaccine?

:wtf:

There is no test that tells you if you do or do not have MS.
They don't know what causes it so they cannot test FOR anything.
How can they approve a vaccine if they cannot prove that the test subject has or does not have MS nor if the test subject has been protected from MS?

:argh:

This is strictly a profit making insanity!


MS sufferer since 1991

[TZ]

9. Very easily

And if this wasn't promising..It would not go forward for the same reasons you are bitching about...Profit.
Despite what many think, companies do not invest in dangerous ineffective technology.

[varkam]

11. Come off it, Sue.

You know companies just love to sink billions of dollars into medicines that don't do shit besides kill. They wouldn't be evul if they didn't!

[kickysnana]

12. Enron n/t

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. I've always heard that MS had a lot of different causes

And that the causes are poorly understood and, with some varieties, not understood at all. The Wikipedia says,

Causes

Although many risk factors for multiple sclerosis have been identified, no definitive cause has been found. MS likely occurs as a result of some combination of both environmental and genetic factors. Various theories try to combine the known data into plausible explanations. Although most accept an autoimmune explanation, several theories suggest that MS is an appropriate immune response to one or several underlying conditions (the etiology could be heterogeneous). The need for alternative theories is supported by the poor results of present therapies, since autoimmune theory predicted greater success.

Vaccines work by stimulating antigen production in the immune system. I fail to see how that would make any difference.

[kestrel91316]

4. How the hell does one "vaccinate" against an autoimmune disease???

This sounds about as promising and effective as the FIP "vaccine" in cats: IOW,NOT.

[TZ]

8. They are using the word vaccine loosely here.

Its like the "vaccines" that are used to treat cancerous tumors, they are a little different from your typical..Sounds like they are retraining part of the immune system to "correct" itself.
Something actually my company does a lot of work on..using cytokines and antibodies to those cytokines to treat diseases...

[eppur_se_muova]

10. Thanks. Sounds like some new terminology needs to be introduced ...

I vote for "elixir". :P

[Liberal Veteran]

13. I prefer "panacea".

:D

[OKthatsIT]

16. I agree. Is it a vaccine against excessive inflammation?

[trotsky]

17. See post #6.

It is a vaccine targeted against the body's T-cells that are attacking the myelin. Using the immune system to fight its own rogue elements - a pretty brilliant idea.

[Demeter]

5. Thanks for the Post

Sent it to my sis.

[Ian David]

6. '92% success'

The vaccine being studied in the US contains inactive myelin-specific T cells - found in the immune system.

To make it, a blood sample is taken from the patient and the cells are extracted.

They are then multiplied in a lab, and treated with radiation before being re-injected into the patient.

The body's immune system then recognises these modified T cells as being damaged and attacks them, priming the body's defence system in the same way a conventionally designed vaccine would, the researchers say.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4787430.stm


Read the article before you pooh-pooh it out of hand.

But hell...

Doesn't The BBC have a spell check?? "defence"?? "recognises"???




(Yes, I'm kidding about that last bit).

[Liberal Veteran]

7. But won't it cause alzheimers and adult onset autism?

Because vaccines are teh evul!

[xchrom]

14. may this bring relief. nt

[hedgehog]

15. It's be nice if this is a step to addresing other auto-immune diseases as well.