Best views, weather, etc. How to test them 👓 SC, Ala. sites look back Betty Ford honored
NEWS
HEALTH

New MS therapy could build autoimmune tolerance

Karen Weintraub
Special for USA TODAY
In multiple sclerosis, communication between the brain and other parts of the body can be hindered.
  • Preliminary research establishes safety in patients with multiple sclerosis
  • Building immune tolerance could work for other autoimmune diseases
  • It could take three to five years to know whether method is effective

If the immune system is the body's army, autoimmune disease is a mutiny. Researchers at Northwestern University are trying to reverse these diseases by paralyzing the rebels.

Though the research is preliminary, a paper published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine shows that this approach is safe for patients with multiple sclerosis.

The study is "intriguing validation" of the concept, said Tim Coetzee with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, a patient advocacy group. "It certainly gives us an important new potential tool to test in clinical trials."

In MS, the immune system attacks the white material known as myelin that insulates and speeds up transmissions along nerve cells in the brain, spinal cord and eye. Without this insulation, the cells don't work as well, leading to a range of symptoms from clumsiness to vision problems to emotional changes.

The new approach, tried in just nine patients, aims to build up the body's tolerance for its own cells and stop the immune onslaught. Because turning off the entire immune system would be a disaster for the patient, the goal was to target just those immune cells that lead the mutiny.

Stephen Miller, the Northwestern microbiologist who led the research and has been refining this approach at building immune tolerance for 30 years, said he is pleased with the results of the preliminary study and eager to try it in more patients.

"For a Phase 1 trial, which is geared toward measuring safety, this is probably the best (result) we could hope for," said Miller, who collaborated with researchers from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany. "Our method is safe to use in MS patients – it doesn't exacerbate the disease."

Researchers saw evidence of target changes in the patients' immune response, though they did not study the patients long enough to know whether their disease improved.

The real advantage of his approach, Miller said, is that if it proves effective, "it could be modified to treat many different autoimmune diseases just by switching out" substances that trigger specific diseases. Theoretically, the same approach might work for type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, allergies and even heart disease in which blood cells can cause tissue damage, he said.

Scientists' enthusiasm is tempered by previous failures in the field. Two companies have tried similar "tolerizing" approaches that looked good in animal and early human trials but failed to have an effect on the disease.

Howard Weiner, an MS expert at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said he's optimistic for the long term but warns that patients shouldn't get too excited. It will be at least three to five years before researchers will know whether the method is effective.

"If you're talking about climbing a mountain," Weiner said, "they've got the gear, and they're just starting to get onto the trail."

Miller does not have financial support from a drug company or foundation to continue research to the next, crucial stage, when he would look for effectiveness against the disease.

There are a lot of different MS approaches under development, Coetzee said, making it a competitive environment for drug companies deciding which methods to back.

Featured Weekly Ad