A cure for MS isn't anywhere near a reality, just like there is no cure for the expanding and contracting road surfaces in places like Chicago where the weather endures so many extremes. However, in Chicago, they don't just let the craters takes over... they fill in their potholes.
What about me? Can I fill in my potholes? (And I don't mean by inhaling Superglue or peanut butter or Spackle or asphalt.)
There's a physiological process that occurs during MS called demyelination. It's the response of the nervous system being attacked by the immune system. The outcome? Holes in the fatty coating around our nerves.
Potholes.
There's another physiological process that all human brains can perform to a certain extent: remyelination. This is where brain hires its own road crew to go in a fill in those potholes from time to time. The human body is quite remarkable in the myriad ways it fixes itself or compensates when parts are broken, eh?
Even within the brains of MSers you can find some capacity for the brain to fill in its potholes. Part of the strategy for using Disease Modifying Therapies (DMTs) is to give the brain and body a chance to go into remission so the brain and body can send out its repair crews. However, if we're in a constant state of inflammation (part of the experience of relapsing), that's more or less like the weather being too extreme to commence pothole filling. The work has to wait until the climate improves.
What if we could fill actual potholes in actual roads regardless of the weather? Wouldn't that be awesome?
A miracle?
And what if... what if our brains could do the same kind of metaphoric repairs regardless of our condition (relapse v. remit)? Wouldn't that be awesome? A miracle?
Common sense tells me that would be ALMOST as good as a cure.
Guess what? Chicago's roads aren't going to have any miracles for pothole filling any time soon... BUT:
MSers! There's a bunch of research out there suggesting it could be possible for us to remyelinate! Here are ten links to ponder. Some are research studies, others are press releases or articles or abstracts. What they are all pointing to is research that could pave the way (pun intended) to brain injury repair, not only for MSers for for anyone who has suffered neurological damage and could use some patching up. Stay tuned!
3.18.2014 -- Science Daily
Stem cells from muscle can repair nerve damage after injury
2.9.2014 -- MedicalNews.Net
Researchers identify protein that promotes growth of brain cells damaged by MS
n.d., 2014 -- Mayo Clinic Laboratories: Multiple Sclerosis
Immune Promotion of Remyelination Optimization of Antibody Enhanced Remyelination
n.d., 2014 -- Myelin Repair Foundation
MRF-008: Potential MS Drug to Protect and Repair Myelin
11.2013 -- National Institutes of Health
Promoting Remyelination in Multiple Sclerosis—Recent Advances
9.2013 -- National Multiple Sclerosis Society
Cutting-edge brain science by UCSF researcher wins first Barancik Prize for Innovation in MS Research
7.2013 -- EuroStemCell.org
New strategy for brain repair in multiple sclerosis
4.2013 -- MedicalNews.Net
Phase 1 clinical study of rHIgM22 initiated for treatment of multiple sclerosis
10.2012 -- Brain: A Journal of Neurology
Targeting ASIC1 in primary progressive multiple sclerosis: evidence of neuroprotection with amiloride
8.2012 -- Multiple Sclerosis Trust || MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, University of Edinburgh
Remyelination in MS
