NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Syncytin, a virus protein that has been around for
millions of years, may play a role in the nerve damage that occurs with multiple
sclerosis (MS), scientists report in the journal Nature Neuroscience. This
finding could lead to new treatments for the devastating neurologic disease.
Syncytin "can activate immune mechanisms, which can ultimately damage cells that
make myelin," an important nerve covering that gradually disappears in patients
with MS, senior author Dr. Christopher Power, at the University of Calgary in
Alberta, Canada, told Reuters Health.
Power and his international research team found that syncytin is present in the
brain tissue of patients with MS at levels about three times higher than in
healthy brain tissue. They also found that syncytin stimulates the production of
various inflammatory chemicals.
By introducing the gene for syncytin into mice, the researchers were able to
create animals that had symptoms commonly seen in humans with MS, such as
weakness and unsteady gait. The symptoms and tissue changes were reversed when
the mice were treated with a chemical called ferulic acid.
Power noted that ferulic acid was well tolerated by the animals, and said he
hopes to further explore its potential as a therapeutic agent in patients with
MS.
Other drugs currently being tested may be found to have an effect on syncytin,
Dr. Mark P. Mattson and Dr. Dennis D. Taub of the National Institute on Aging
Intramural Research Program, Baltimore, remark in a related editorial.
But it will be important to know what other tissues are affected by syncytin,
they add, because critical functions could be compromised by treatments aimed at
syncytin.
SOURCE: Nature Neuroscience