Gut bacteria’s role in multiple sclerosis 
Biologists have demonstrated a connection between multiple sclerosis (MS)—an autoimmune disorder that affects the brain and spinal cord—and gut bacteria.
Details of the findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Multiple sclerosis results from the progressive deterioration of the protective fatty myelin sheath surrounding nerve cells. Although the cause of MS is unknown, microorganisms seem to play some sort of role.
“In the literature from clinical studies, there are papers showing that microbes affect MS,” says lead researcher Sarkis Mazmanian, assistant professor of biology at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). “For example, the disease gets worse after viral infections, and bacterial infections cause an increase in MS symptoms.”
On the other hand, he concedes, “it seems counterintuitive that a microbe would be involved in a disease of the central nervous system, because these are sterile tissues.”
And yet, as Mazmanian found when he began examining the multiple sclerosis literature, the suggestion of a link between bacteria and the disease is more than anecdotal.
Details of the findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Multiple sclerosis results from the progressive deterioration of the protective fatty myelin sheath surrounding nerve cells. Although the cause of MS is unknown, microorganisms seem to play some sort of role.
“In the literature from clinical studies, there are papers showing that microbes affect MS,” says lead researcher Sarkis Mazmanian, assistant professor of biology at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). “For example, the disease gets worse after viral infections, and bacterial infections cause an increase in MS symptoms.”
On the other hand, he concedes, “it seems counterintuitive that a microbe would be involved in a disease of the central nervous system, because these are sterile tissues.”
And yet, as Mazmanian found when he began examining the multiple sclerosis literature, the suggestion of a link between bacteria and the disease is more than anecdotal.
