BACTERIAL THEORY OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

Report #6676 12/18/95
Exciting new research from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston shows that multiple sclerosis may be caused by the same mechanism that causes rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatic fever and juvenile diabetes.
Multiple sclerosis is characterized by repeated episodes of nerve damage and recovery. For example, a person may lose vision and then regain it, then lose coordination for one arm and leg, then regain some coordination, and so forth. Many different researchers have shown that people who have multiple sclerosis have T immune cells that attack and kill myelin, the covering of nerves. For the first time, Harvard University researchers have shown why a person's own immunity is so stupid that it attacks and kills its own body parts. The surface protein on myelin coverings of nerves have the same protein structure as several different germs, such as the human wart virus, influenza, herpes simplex, reovirus and the bacteria, pseudomonas. When you are infected with these germs, your body's cells and antibodies attack and kill them, but they also attack and kill your own myelin. In rheumatoid arthritis, your muscle and joint cells have the same surface protein as a bacteria called E. Coli. In rheumatic fever, your heart muscle is similar to eta strep, group A. In juvenile diabetes, the beta cells of the pancreas are similar to an influenza virus. That means that anything that kills the germs associated with multiple sclerosis may help to stop nerve damage, such as zovirax to kill herpes, cipro to kill pseudomonas and beta interferon to kill some of the other viruses.
By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News