University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Scientists Find Early Immune Trigger of MS

Using advanced imaging to observe the early stages of nerve damage in mice with MS, scientists in the US believe they have found an important early trigger for the disease: the leakage of a clotting protein across the blood-brain barrier that activates an immune response and results in a toxic environment that damages nerve cells. Through genetic modification, they also found a way to stop the protein triggering the immune response without impairing its ability to clot blood.