2024-05-13 22:00:00
A new UCSF study may have discovered how to diagnose multiple sclerosis (MS) earlier and faster. Antibodies specific to the disease are believed to be circulating in patients’ blood years before symptoms appear. The discovery could have major implications because early treatment could slow the progression of the disease.
See also article: Everything you need to know about multiple sclerosis (MS)
How is multiple sclerosis diagnosed today?
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating and incurable autoimmune disease affecting the central nervous system. The disease attacks suddenly and symptoms worsen unpredictably.
Diagnosing MS is not always easy. The first symptoms usually appear between the ages of 20 and 40. They include muscle weakness or spasm, numbness of the limbs, fatigue, etc., and are easily confused with other diseases. Diagnosis is often late. It requires careful analysis of brain MRIs.
See also article: Multiple Sclerosis (MS): Diagnosis and Symptoms of the Disease
Antibodies appear in the blood years before symptoms appear
In people with MS, the immune system malfunctions and attacks the myelin (the fatty layer that surrounds and protects the pathways of neurons), causing inflamed plaques in the brain and symptoms.
A The study was published in the journal Nature Medicine Studies show that signs of this inflammation can be detected years before some patients develop symptoms.
Researchers in the study identified 250 people with multiple sclerosis among more than 10 million U.S. service members. They analyzed blood samples collected 5 years before the first clinical symptoms and 1 year after the first MS episode. They compared them with blood samples from 250 healthy veterans.
They found that 10 percent of people with MS had high levels of autoantibodies years before diagnosis. Additionally, patients with these autoantibodies have elevated levels of neurofilament (sNfL), a protein released when neurons deteriorate.
Researchers speculate that the immune system may mistake friendly human proteins for viral enemies, leading to lifelong multiple sclerosis.
“When we use our technology to analyze healthy people, each person appears unique, with their own immune fingerprint, like a snowflake,” said Joe DeRisi, one of the study’s authors. “We start to suspect something is wrong when one person’s immunologic profile is similar to another person’s and no longer resembles a snowflake, which is what we found in these MS patients.
See also article: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV): a cause of mononucleosis, autoimmune diseases, and other diseases
Blood test for early treatment of multiple sclerosis
There is no cure for multiple sclerosis, but its progression can be slowed and most symptoms can be treated to some extent.
According to the scientists, the blood test could therefore reveal the presence of autoantibodies at the origin of the immune attack in MS and create new opportunities to understand and treat the disease.
Many questions remain about multiple sclerosis, from what causes an immune response in some patients to how the disease develops in the other 90 percent of patients. But researchers believe they now have a decisive clue to the onset of the disease.
“Imagine if we could diagnose multiple sclerosis before some patients develop clinical symptoms,” said Stephen Hauser, director of the Weill Neuroscience Institute at UCSF and one of the paper’s lead authors. explain. “This increases our chances of emerging from neutrality [de la SEP] to heal.
See also article: Multiple Sclerosis: Possible Treatments
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Last updated: May 2024
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