February 17, 2008

expert reacts to paper on new research into multiple sclerosis mechanisms

The research, published in the journal Nature, has revealed potential targets for the treatment of MS, which affects 85,000 people in the UK. The Science Media Centre asked a neurologist to comment on these new findings.

Professor Neil Scolding, University of Bristol Institute of Clinical Neurosciences, Department of Neurology, Frenchay Hospital, said:

“From the scientific perspective, the exciting thing is that it’s pretty much the first time that proteomics has directly yielded a candidate molecule that is both unexpected and novel on the one hand AND has therapeutic potential.

“From the clinical perspective, showing that treatment approaches predicted by this proteomic interrogation of MS tissue do have a clear impact in experimental models of MS is extremely promising. As the authors point out, those treatments that interfere with blood coagulation ‘would not be optimal because of the increased risk of bleeding’, but this points the way to a new area of MS research of considerable interest, and which could well lead in the future to new lines of treatment.”