Jun
30
Drinking several cups of coffee a day could halt the development of multiple sclerosis, the results of a new study suggest.
Researchers hope that the finding may prove to be relevant for other autoimmune diseases, in which the body uses the weapons of its immune system against itself, such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
“This is an exciting and unexpected finding, and I think it could be important for the study of MS and other diseases,” said Prof Linda Thompson of Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, who reports the find in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In the study, done in collaboration with Dr Jeffrey Mills and Dr Margaret Bynoe of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, along with colleagues in Finland’s University of Turku, researchers followed the progress of mice that normally developed an MS-like condition as a result of being injected with a vaccine that provoked an immune attack that damages nerves..
The scientists discovered that when the rodents consumed the equivalent of six to eight cups of coffee a day, they did not develop the condition. The finding could lead to new ways to prevent and treat MS, said Prof Thompson.
According to Prof Thompson, the caffeine acted on adenosine (one of the four building blocks in DNA) and this prevented certain T cells - white blood cells that play a central role in immune responses - from reaching the central nervous system and triggering the cascade of events that lead to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, or EAE, the animal model for the human disease MS.
read the rest: Coffee could halt multiple sclerosis - Telegraph
May
13
ONDAY, May 12 (HealthDay News) — Only about 5 percent of people with multiple sclerosis are diagnosed when they’re children, but like adults with MS, the disease can affect cognitive function, causing memory and attention problems, and possibly low IQ scores.
And, the younger a child is at the time of diagnosis, the more likely he or she is to have a low IQ, according to new research published in the May 13 issue of the journal Neurology.
“In childhood cases, the impact of the disease on cognitive functioning may be more dramatic than that observed in adults,” said study author Dr. Maria Pia Amato, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Florence, in Italy.
read the rest: Multiple Sclerosis Affects Children’s Cognitive Skills
May
1
Prozac May Help Curb Disease Activity In Multiple Sclerosis
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ScienceDaily (May 2, 2008) — The antidepressant Prozac may help to curb disease activity in the relapsing remitting form of multiple sclerosis (MS), reveals preliminary research published ahead of print in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.The research team randomly allocated 40 patients with the relapsing remitting form of MS to treatment with either 20 mg daily of fluoxetine (Prozac) or an inactive substance (placebo) for a period of 24 weeks.
Detailed brain scans (magnetic resonance images or MRI) every four weeks were used to check for new areas of neurological inflammation, a hallmark of active disease. In total, 38 patients–19 in each group–completed the study. The scans showed that those in the placebo group had more new areas of inflammation than those treated with Prozac.
The effects began to become evident after eight weeks, which corresponds to the time the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class of drugs, of which Prozac is one, start to work on relieving depression.
read more: Prozac May Help Curb Disease Activity In Multiple Sclerosis