Latest treatment for MS hailed

Scientists have hailed a new treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) as a major breakthrough after it was tested on humans for the first time.

Early clinical trial results suggest the treatment could prevent patients' bodies from attacking myelin, the insulating layer which forms around nerves, which leads to symptoms including limb numbness, paralysis and blindness.

Tests on nine patients in Germany showed that the therapy could reduce the reactivity of their immune systems to myelin by 50 to 75%, leading to hopes the method could delay or prevent the onset of symptoms.

Professor Stephen Miller, from Chicago's Northwestern University, which led the study, said the treatment could be the "holy grail" in the quest to prevent the debilitating effects of MS.

He said: "The therapy stops autoimmune responses that are already activated and prevents the activation of new autoimmune cells, Our approach leaves the function of the normal immune system intact. That's the holy grail."

During the trial patients were injected with their own white blood cells which delivered billions of myelin antigens into their bodies.

This encouraged their immune system to develop tolerance to the antigens, and to react less to myelin as a result.

Current therapies for MS suppress the entire immune system, making patients more susceptible to everyday infections and higher rates of cancer.

Researchers have admitted there were too few patients involved in the trial to determine the treatment's ability to prevent the progression of MS, and UK experts have stressed that more research was needed following the trial results.

The study, which is published in the Science Translational Medicine journal, was in collaboration with University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland and University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany.

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Latest treatment for MS hailed