ironjustice
2012-06-13 18:39:22 UTC
"Share a similar phosphate group"
Lecithin dips .. remember .. ?
Replacing fatty acids may fight MS
Patients lack key lipids that fend off inflammation and nerve damage
By Nathan Seppa Web edition :
Wednesday, June 6th, 2012
By delving into the components of protective nerve coatings that get
damaged in multiple sclerosis, scientists have identified a handful of
lipid molecules that appear to be attacked by an immune system run
amok.
Bolstering the supply of these lipids might help preserve these nerve
coatings and, in the process, knock back the inflammation that
contributes to their destruction, researchers report in the June 6
Science Translational Medicine.
In MS patients, rogue antibodies assault myelin, the fatty sheath that
insulates nerves and facilitates signaling. Inflammation exacerbates
the attack on myelin and the cells that make it. But other details of
MS, including the roles of myelin lipids, have been less clearly
understood.
“I think this is a very good study,” says Francisco Quintana, an
immunologist at Harvard Medical School. “Overall, there are not many
papers on lipids in MS. Technically, they are challenging and require
a lot of expertise.”
To explore the role of lipids, the researchers studied spinal fluid
from people with MS, healthy people and patients with other
neurological disorders. Tests on the fluid showed that antibodies
targeted four lipids more often in MS patients than in the other
groups. Examination of autopsied brains from MS patients and people
without MS revealed that, in the MS patients, these four lipids were
depleted at the sites where the nerve coatings were damaged.
A nerve needs an intact myelin sheath to conduct signals. “It short-
circuits if they are not there,” says study coauthor Lawrence
Steinman, a neurologist at Stanford University. This nerve damage
causes loss of muscle control and other symptoms characteristic of MS.
Steinman and his colleagues conducted tests in mice with a condition
similar to MS and found that injections of the lipids over several
weeks could limit severity of the disease and even reverse some
symptoms in the animals. The four lipids — abbreviated as PGPC, azPC,
azPC ester and POPS — share a similar phosphate group, to which the
rogue antibodies bind.
Other tests in mice showed that side chains of fatty acids, attached
to the lipids like fingers on a glove, “keep the myelin-making cells
alive and reduce the inflammatory response,” Steinman says. “It turns
out that the side chains are imbued with protective properties.” They
repel inflammation and even kill the T cells that trigger it, the
researchers found.
It could be that people with MS, who lack adequate supplies of these
lipids and their protective fatty acids, fail to keep up with the
destruction caused by antibodies and inflammation. But that dismal
numbers game might present an opening for future research, Steinman
says. Just as the mice benefited from receiving extra lipids, human
patients might, too. And some tests now show that mice can take the
lipids orally and still improve, he adds.
Quintana says that further animal studies will be needed to clarify
the full effects of giving lipids to fight MS. “But it could
potentially lead to some kind of therapy.”
Joan Goverman, an immunologist at the University of Washington in
Seattle, says the researchers deserve credit for their approach.
“Looking at humans and then going back and incorporating that in
animal models is a powerful way to understand the disease.”
----------------------
Who loves ya.
Tom
Jesus Was A Vegetarian!
http://tinyurl.com/2r2nkh
Man Is A Herbivore!
http://tinyurl.com/4rq595
DEAD PEOPLE WALKING
http://tinyurl.com/zk9fk
Lecithin dips .. remember .. ?
Replacing fatty acids may fight MS
Patients lack key lipids that fend off inflammation and nerve damage
By Nathan Seppa Web edition :
Wednesday, June 6th, 2012
By delving into the components of protective nerve coatings that get
damaged in multiple sclerosis, scientists have identified a handful of
lipid molecules that appear to be attacked by an immune system run
amok.
Bolstering the supply of these lipids might help preserve these nerve
coatings and, in the process, knock back the inflammation that
contributes to their destruction, researchers report in the June 6
Science Translational Medicine.
In MS patients, rogue antibodies assault myelin, the fatty sheath that
insulates nerves and facilitates signaling. Inflammation exacerbates
the attack on myelin and the cells that make it. But other details of
MS, including the roles of myelin lipids, have been less clearly
understood.
“I think this is a very good study,” says Francisco Quintana, an
immunologist at Harvard Medical School. “Overall, there are not many
papers on lipids in MS. Technically, they are challenging and require
a lot of expertise.”
To explore the role of lipids, the researchers studied spinal fluid
from people with MS, healthy people and patients with other
neurological disorders. Tests on the fluid showed that antibodies
targeted four lipids more often in MS patients than in the other
groups. Examination of autopsied brains from MS patients and people
without MS revealed that, in the MS patients, these four lipids were
depleted at the sites where the nerve coatings were damaged.
A nerve needs an intact myelin sheath to conduct signals. “It short-
circuits if they are not there,” says study coauthor Lawrence
Steinman, a neurologist at Stanford University. This nerve damage
causes loss of muscle control and other symptoms characteristic of MS.
Steinman and his colleagues conducted tests in mice with a condition
similar to MS and found that injections of the lipids over several
weeks could limit severity of the disease and even reverse some
symptoms in the animals. The four lipids — abbreviated as PGPC, azPC,
azPC ester and POPS — share a similar phosphate group, to which the
rogue antibodies bind.
Other tests in mice showed that side chains of fatty acids, attached
to the lipids like fingers on a glove, “keep the myelin-making cells
alive and reduce the inflammatory response,” Steinman says. “It turns
out that the side chains are imbued with protective properties.” They
repel inflammation and even kill the T cells that trigger it, the
researchers found.
It could be that people with MS, who lack adequate supplies of these
lipids and their protective fatty acids, fail to keep up with the
destruction caused by antibodies and inflammation. But that dismal
numbers game might present an opening for future research, Steinman
says. Just as the mice benefited from receiving extra lipids, human
patients might, too. And some tests now show that mice can take the
lipids orally and still improve, he adds.
Quintana says that further animal studies will be needed to clarify
the full effects of giving lipids to fight MS. “But it could
potentially lead to some kind of therapy.”
Joan Goverman, an immunologist at the University of Washington in
Seattle, says the researchers deserve credit for their approach.
“Looking at humans and then going back and incorporating that in
animal models is a powerful way to understand the disease.”
----------------------
Who loves ya.
Tom
Jesus Was A Vegetarian!
http://tinyurl.com/2r2nkh
Man Is A Herbivore!
http://tinyurl.com/4rq595
DEAD PEOPLE WALKING
http://tinyurl.com/zk9fk