MS Markers Identified Years Before Disease Is Diagnosed

Neurologists have identified early genetic markers of multiple sclerosis (MS) that appear up to nine years before adults develop symptoms of the disease.

The new method detects multiple sclerosis (MS) in the blood and should lead to earlier diagnosis, more effective intervention, and perhaps even a cure for the autoimmune disease.

Blood samples of twenty 19-year-old Israelis including nine who later developed MS were examined. A high throughput analysis using more than 12,000 gene transcripts expressions enabled comparison of similarities and differences in the blood of those who developed MS and those who did not, eventually establishing biological markers.

The study was lead by Prof. Anat Achiron of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine (Israel) and vice dean of research at Sheba Medical Center (Tel Hashomer, Israel). The investigators suggested that the MS could eventually be identified and screened years before it manifests itself. This would open the way toward interventions that could lead to early prevention of the disease.

The early genetic markers can be used to test for multiple sclerosis up to nine years before healthy young adults start developing symptoms. Moreover, because MS is thought to have a genetic component and a tendency to be found in siblings, Prof. Achiron said that the biomarkers could be used as a tool to follow brothers and sisters of patients.

By the time a person notices symptoms of this disease, significant and irreversible nerve damage has already occurred. MS is classified as an autoimmune disease that afflicts the brain and spinal cord. The disease causes the immune system's T cells mistakenly to regard the myelin sheath around the body's neurons as foreign, subjecting them to attack.

The study appeared in the May 2010 journal Neurobiology of Disease.

Related Links:
Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine
Sheba Medical Center