UK research, described as “groundbreaking” by the MS Society, has shown that damage to myelin can be repaired using stems cells. Myelin covers and protects nerve fibres like a sheath in the spinal cord – and damage to this causes MS symptoms.
MS is the most common neurological condition in young adults in the UK, affecting around 85,000 people, according to the NHS.
New research
Researchers from the Cambridge Centre for Myelin Repair and the Edinburgh Centre for Translational Research looked at ways that the brain’s own stem cells repair myelin in people with MS. They identified a specific type of molecule called RXR-gamma, which seems to be important in encouraging myelin repair.
They found that targeting RXR-gamma in the laboratory on rats encouraged the brain’s own stem cells to regenerate myelin.
Stem cells
RXR-gamma has already been studied for treatments and drugs called rexinoids to target the molecule in cancer. Researchers are now looking at how this might be used to treat MS.
The research is published in the journal Nature Neuroscience. The authors write: “Rexinoids might be useful for the treatment of inflammatory diseases of the nervous system such as multiple sclerosis.” They say their study illustrates a role for rexinoids “as potential drugs for regenerative therapy in demyelinating disorders”.
In a statement, Professor Charles ffrench-Constant, of the University of Edinburgh’s MS Society Centre for Multiple Sclerosis Research, says: “The aim of our research is to slow the progression of multiple sclerosis with the eventual aim of stopping and reversing it. This discovery is very exciting as it could potentially pave the way to find drugs that could help repair damage caused to the important layers that protect nerve cells in the brain.”
Treatment ‘within 15 years’
The MS Society, which part funded the research, hopes these results will lead to clinical trials in people with MS in the next five years – and the possibility of treatment within 15 years.
In a statement, Chief Executive Simon Gillespie says, “for people with MS this is one of the most exciting developments in recent years”. He continues: “It’s hard to put into words how revolutionary this discovery could be and how critical it is to continue research into MS. We’re delighted to have funded the first stage of this work and we’re now considering funding it further.”
Helen Yates, chief executive of the MS Research Centre (MSRC) tells us by email: “This is a groundbreaking piece of research that, in effect, puts myelin repair in the realms of reality rather than a hoped for outcome. This work will pave the way for other research into this area that will eventually lead to treatment to repair myelin.”
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Contradicting a previous study, researchers have found that compounds called oxysterols are not present in any significant amount in multiple sclerosis patients.
An earlier study published in the Nature Immunology had shown that some of these cholesterol metabolites were associated with MS and could be used as diagnostic tools in the clinic.
The study reported that two oxysterols, known as 15HC and 15KC, were increased more than three-fold in the blood of MS patients, and that these oxysterols could be associated with the development of the disease.
But now, Ingemar Bjorkhem and colleagues at Sweden”s Karolinska Institutet performed their own analysis of blood samples using a combination of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, which vaporizes the samples and separates the component parts to allow for a thorough separation of all molecules.
The concluded that they identified 15HC and 15KC levels even at low concentrations.
Despite numerous efforts, though, Bjorkhem and colleagues failed to find any meaningful 15HC or 15KC oxysterol levels in blood of healthy individuals or MS patients.
To ensure the oxysterols were not being lost or metabolized somewhere along the experimental chain, they also ran blood samples with pre-loaded oxysterols and recovered almost 100 percent of the loaded amount, demonstrating that the protocol was not the problem.
The findings appeared in the Journal of Lipid Research.
Scientists have identified a way of prompting nerve system repair in multiple sclerosis (MS).
Studies on rats by Cambridge and Edinburgh University researchers identified how to help stem cells in the brain regenerate myelin sheath, needed to protect nerve fibres.
MS charities said the “exciting” Nature Neuroscience work offered hope of restoring physical functions.
But they cautioned it would be some years before treatments were developed.
MS is caused by a defect in the body’s immune system, which turns in on itself, and attacks the fatty myelin sheath.
It is thought to affect around 100,000 people in the UK.
Around 85% have the relapsing/remitting form of the condition, in which “flare-ups” which cause disability, are followed by a recovery of a level of the lost physical function.
In this form of MS, there does appear to be some natural myelin repair.
However, around 10% of people are diagnosed with a progressive form of MS, where the decline continues without any periods of remission.
In addition, people with the relapsing/remitting form do often go on to develop what is called secondary progressive MS, which affects them in the same way.
Scientists have been looking at how they might develop treatments for these two groups.
In MS, loss of the myelin sheaths which act as insulating layers, leads to the nerve fibres in the brain becoming damaged.
These fibres are important as they send messages to other parts of the body.
This study identified a signalling pathway in the brain which can encourage the brain’s own stem cells to regenerate new myelin.
The scientists believe this will help in identifying drugs to encourage myelin repair in MS patients.
However, much more work is needed – both to test if the mechanism works in people with MS and to see what drugs might be needed to promote the effect.
Professor Charles ffrench-Constant, of the University of Edinburgh’s MS Society Centre for MS Research, said: “The aim of our research is to slow the progression of MS with the eventual aim of stopping and reversing it.
“This discovery is very exciting as it could potentially pave the way to find drugs that could help repair damage caused to the important layers that protect nerve cells in the brain.”
Professor Robin Franklin, director of the MS Society’s Centre for Myelin Repair at the University of Cambridge, said: “Therapies that repair damage are the missing link in treating MS.
“In this study we have identified a means by which the brain’s own stem cells can be encouraged to undertake this repair, opening up the possibility of a new regenerative medicine for this devastating disease.”
The study was funded by the MS Society and the National MS Society in the US.
Simon Gillespie, chief executive of the MS Society, which part-funded the research, said: “For people with MS this is one of the most exciting developments in recent years.
“It’s hard to put into words how revolutionary this discovery could be and how critical it is to continue research into MS.”
Pam Macfarlane, chief executive of the MS Trust added: “Exploration of processes that might repair areas of damage to myelin, is another important area of MS research and this may eventually allow people to recover function that has been lost to disability.
“This is still an early study in rodents but it will be very interesting to see how it develops.”
Scientists have discovered a way to repair damaged nerves with stem cells which could give hope to tens of thousands of multiple sclerosis sufferers.
The British researchers say their findings could lead to the development of drugs that repair nerves in the brain and spinal cord and potentially reverse some of the symptoms of MS.
Almost 100,000 Britons suffer from MS, an incurable disease that causes loss of mobility, sight problems, tiredness and excruciating pain.
It becomes progressively worse and many sufferers are left confined to wheelchairs or mobility scooters.
It is caused by damage to myelin, the substance that surrounds all nerves in the brain and spinal cord. This impairs the way messages are transmitted from the brain to the rest of the body.
Women are twice as likely to develop MS than men and around a fifth of patients will have their life-expectancy shortened by the disease, as it leaves them more at risk from infections and blood clots in the lungs.
Now scientists from Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities have discovered a way of stimulating stem cells in the brain to help repair the damaged myelin.
In experiments on rats, they found that when these stem cells were injected with a chemical called retinoic acid, the myelin was repaired.
They hope that their findings, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, will lead to the development of future treatments for MS – possibly based on this chemical.
Simon Gillespie, of the MS Society, said: ‘For people with MS this is one of the most exciting developments in recent years.
‘It’s hard to put into words how revolutionary this discovery could be and how critical it is to continue research into MS. We’re delighted to have funded the first stage of this work and we’re now looking into funding it further.’