Scientists have found that the immune system produces specific cells that play a very important role in brain repair. This is a breakthrough specifically in monitoring and reducing the risk of neurological disorders like multiple sclerosis (MS).
The research team from Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine at Queen's University Belfast led by Dr. Denise Fitzgerald and Dr. Yvonne Dombrowski are making progress to solve the mystery of how the brain can repair its damage.
One of the most common neurological disorders is multiple sclerosis; it affects approximately 2.3 million people in the world and 4,500 cases in Northern Ireland. The disease is common among young adults in which the myelin sheath that coats the nerve fibers of the central nervous system (CNS) is destroyed.
The optic nerves, brain, and spinal cord are all part of the CNS. When MS attacks the myelin sheath in the wrong way, the result may lead to several nerve impairment like paralysis, fatigue, pain, and vision loss. Although the treatment for MS could limit the relapses, the damage in the myelin sheath cannot be reversed.
The research team found that the immune cells can repair the myelin sheath and have the potential to reverse the damage.
This finding is significant especially in making medicine to boost these certain cells. This is also essential to creating a more advanced treatment to cure neurological diseases like MS, rather than just reducing the attack of the illness, Dr. Dombrowski noted.
The Head of Biomedical Research at the MS Society Dr. Sorrel Bickley also said that one of the most challenging and unpredictable neurological condition is MS.