Blood test predicts Multiple Sclerosis risk

In a discovery that could hasten treatment for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), UC San Francisco scientists have discovered a harbinger in the blood of some people who later went on to develop the disease.

In about 1 in 10 cases of MS, the body begins producing a distinctive set of antibodies against its own proteins years before symptoms emerge. These autoantibodies appear to bind to both human cells and common pathogens, possibly explaining the immune attacks on the brain and spinal cord that are the hallmark of MS.

The findings were published in Nature Medicine on April 19.

They found that 10% of the MS patients had a striking abundance of autoantibodies years before their diagnosis.

The pattern was 100% predictive of an MS diagnosis.

Many questions remain about MS, ranging from what's instigating the immune response in some MS patients to how the disease develops in the other 90% of patients. But the researchers believe they now have a definitive sign that MS is brewing.

Source: NeuroScience News