The dream of myelin repair is a step closer

A new study offers yet another glimmer of hope for people with MS, that their body may be able to repair damage to the myelin coating on their nerves by stimulating the brain's own stem cells.
The results come from the Cambridge Centre for Myelin Repair and the Edinburgh Centre for Translational Research.

What did the study show? Researchers looked at ways that the brain's own stem cells repair myelin in people with MS. Using samples from the MS Society's Tissue Bank, they identified a specific type of molecule called RXR-gamma, which appears to be important in promoting myelin repair. They found that targeting RXR-gamma in rats encouraged the brain's own stem cells to regenerate myelin.

The work was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience and led by Professors Robin Franklin from Cambridge University and Charles ffrench-Constant from the University of Edinburgh.

What does this mean for people with MS? RXR-gamma is already widely studied in cancer biology and a drug already exists that targets the molecule in cancer. Researchers are now looking at how this might be used as an MS treatment, but this is early work.

What happens next? The next step is working towards setting up clinical trials to establish whether existing treatments will be safe and effective in people with MS.  Before anyone dashes off to their neurologists, trials could take 5 years, and a treatment 15 years away.

But, combined with the possibility of CCSVI to stay progression and buy us the time to wait, things could be looking good for us all.

http://mstrust.org.uk/news/msinthemedia.jsp