Multiple Sclerosis Research Repository

From: Chaudhuri A, Behan PO. Multiple sclerosis: looking beyond autoimmunity. J R Soc Med. 2005 Jul;98(7):303-6. doi: 10.1177/014107680509800703. PMID: 15994589; PMCID: PMC1168912.

-“Early and extensive grey matter involvement (estimated number of deep grey matter lesions per gram wet weight is higher than in any other brain structure” and “Progressive brain and spinal cord atrophy, beginning at the stage of clinically isolated demyelinating syndromes”: 

-“We would recommend immunosuppression in…but not in MS”

-”First, nearly 60 years of…research yielded not a single MS-halting therapy”

-”…the EAE model has been used to drive the autoimmune theory and to develop treatments.  An inflammatory hypothesis of demyelination also fails to explain various salient features of the disease” (See Box 1)

-”Unlike autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus or myasthenia gravis, MS has no specific immunological marker”

-”An animal model that has been used in MS research is experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE), in which demyelination is induced by sensitization against myelin basic protein”

-”…both EAE and ADEM are T-cell dependent, organ-specific, autoimmune diseases of the central nervous system.  This has not been found true for MS, despite three decades of intensive research.  Indirect evidence cited in support of an autoimmune pathogenesis for MS has likewise been found wanting”

-”It is neurodegeneration rather than demyelination that contributes to long-term disability” 

-”…brain and spinal cord atrophy is considered to be the direct result of neurodegeneration”

-”Longitudinal studies of brain volume in MS teach us that the rate of brain atrophy is independent of the disease subtype…whether the disease is classed as relapsing-remitting or progressive, the loss of brain volume is the same and is due to neurodegeneration”

-”…the erroneous assumption of autoimmunity”