I don't suffer from MS myself or any other auto immune disorders but this is one of the most exciting discoveries since the first word on insulin and the polio vaccine. If it turns out to work as expected it will be as important because not only MS will be helped but millions of people. This is incredibly exciting news LINK
Millions of people a year die from auto immune disorders, a recent study shows that 1 in 20 women have a form of the disorder, and it is a leading cause of death in America
http://advance.uconn.edu/...
A simple little fusion of two proteins that end up working to have the opposite effect they normally do individually. Follow me below the fold for more information.
Full disclosure, i am no medical professional but even I know that this is different from treatments that mean constant medicating to control symptoms. It works not as a vaccine of course but a different window of time, early in the disease stage and only takes a single dose. It uses the bodies own B cells to accomplish this feat and seems from reading the information its best described as the middle ground between preventative-vaccine and symptom treating-current meds for immune disorders, by reversing its course completely if diagnosed early
The new treatment, appropriately named GIFT15, puts MS into remission by suppressing the immune response. This means it might also be effective against other autoimmune disorders like Crohn's disease, lupus and arthritis, the researchers said, and could theoretically also control immune responses in organ transplant patients. Moreover, unlike earlier immune-supppressing therapies which rely on chemical pharamaceuticals, this approach is a personalized form of cellular therapy which utilizes the body's own cells to suppress immunity in a much more targeted way.
and
MS must be caught in its earliest stages, Galipeau cautioned, and clinical studies are needed to test the treatment's efficacy and safety in humans. No significant side-effects showed up in the mice, he said, and the treatment was fully effective with a single dose.
both from the link.
Hopefully doctors can weigh in, i think the fact they are at the point where they have published and now just need the financial resourses to go to trials is also different from many of the jumps made in medicine lately, its not finding a gene that will still take 20 years to develop a treatment for. I may be over reacting to its importance but i don't believe i am, both because of how it works, when it works and how ready it might be for human trials. I am also a little excited about the fact these are two canadian researchers...remember big pharma says the states have to pay more because they do the research? Well it happens here in canada too where we don't get punked on drug prices