MS patients given hope with new vaccine treatment

Canadian researchers have developed a vaccine to stop the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) and they say encouraging results have already been seen.

The scientists from the Montreal Neurological Institute say the DNA vaccine, BHT-3009, appears to be safe and beneficial to the brain and immune systems of patients with MS.

In multiple sclerosis, the immune system mistakenly attacks the fatty myelin sheaths that protect nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

There is no cure for the disease, which affects an estimated 400,000 people in the United States alone.

Symptoms include blurred vision, loss of balance, poor coordination, extreme fatigue, paralysis and blindness.

Researchers from the institute carried out MRI scans and other tests on 30 MS patients after they were given the vaccine.

The victims had the most severe form of the disease and were monitored over the course of a year in order to see how they reacted.

The treatment was found to be safe and well tolerated and a reduction in the type of white blood cells that target myelin proteins, which protect nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, was also seen; in patients with MS the immune system attacks these proteins.

The number of brain lesions fell among those who took the vaccine compared to those on the placebo.

The researchers also found there were no increases in the level of relapses or other adverse events among patients in the study.

The study was designed by Dr. Amit Bar-Or in order to show that the vaccine was safe; a larger trial of 290 patients has now begun.

The researchers say the vaccine was designed to treat the condition, not to prevent infection, and if successful in MS, they believe an antigen-specific DNA vaccine can be developed for the prevention or treatment of related diseases, such as type 1 diabetes systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and myasthenia gravis.

The research is published in the journal the Archives of Neurology.