Genetics of multiple sclerosis
Monday, 30 Jul 2007 12:50
The research has been welcomed by health campaigners
Health campaigners have welcomed the recent discovery of two genes that increase people's risk of multiple sclerosis (MS).
The disease affects the central nervous system and symptoms range from mild muscle weakness to partial or complete paralysis. Scientists believe an interaction between genetics, immunity and the environment cause MS.
Two wide-ranging studies involving more than 20,000 MS patients and unaffected people in the US and Europe found a link between (MS) and genetic variations known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).
These variations affected proteins on the surface of immune cells.
The discovery is said to be the first to conclusively link genes to MS in 20 years; in the 1970s scientists found that human leukocyte antigens (HLA) account for some of this genetic susceptibility.
"These are the first non-HLA genes to be unequivocally associated with MS," said Dr Maraget Pericak-Vance, director of the Miami Institute for Human Genomics at the University of Miami.
"They give us a new way of looking at the biology of the disease, and could be targets for therapeutic development."
The findings are published in the Nature Genetics journal and the New England Journal of Medicine.
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