{"id":4164,"date":"2019-05-14T10:33:51","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T14:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/?p=4164"},"modified":"2020-03-11T16:09:18","modified_gmt":"2020-03-11T20:09:18","slug":"a-new-culprit-for-ms-relapses-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/2019\/05\/14\/a-new-culprit-for-ms-relapses-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Culprit for MS Relapses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>As posted in the <a href=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2019\/05\/new-culprit-multiple-sclerosis-relapses\/\">UConn Today<\/a>, May 9, 2019 &#8211;\u00a0<\/em><span class=\"small-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/author\/kik14002\/\">Kim Krieger<\/a> &#8211; UConn Communications<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4154\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4154\" style=\"width: 346px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2019\/06\/MS-Relapses-GettyImages-178502526-e1557232508845.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4154 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2019\/06\/MS-Relapses-GettyImages-178502526-e1557232508845-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Getty Image\" width=\"346\" height=\"230\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2019\/06\/MS-Relapses-GettyImages-178502526-e1557232508845-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2019\/06\/MS-Relapses-GettyImages-178502526-e1557232508845-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2019\/06\/MS-Relapses-GettyImages-178502526-e1557232508845-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2019\/06\/MS-Relapses-GettyImages-178502526-e1557232508845-272x182.jpg 272w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 346px) 100vw, 346px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 346px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 346\/230;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4154 \" src=\"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2019\/06\/MS-Relapses-GettyImages-178502526-e1557232508845-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Getty Image\" width=\"346\" height=\"230\" srcset=\"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2019\/06\/MS-Relapses-GettyImages-178502526-e1557232508845-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2019\/06\/MS-Relapses-GettyImages-178502526-e1557232508845-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2019\/06\/MS-Relapses-GettyImages-178502526-e1557232508845-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/121\/2019\/06\/MS-Relapses-GettyImages-178502526-e1557232508845-272x182.jpg 272w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 346px) 100vw, 346px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4154\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">MRI exam of the human brain showing multiple sclerosis plaques. MS damages the brain\u2019s ability to communicate with the rest of the body. (Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A molecule that helps blood clot may also play a role in multiple sclerosis relapses, research report in the <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.1816911116\">May 6 issue of <em>PNAS<\/em><\/a>. The new research may help answer the mystery of why remissions happen, as well as find early markers of the disease.<\/p>\n<p>The research also shows a new way to study multiple sclerosis (MS) in mice that is closer to the human form of the disease.<\/p>\n<p>MS affects about a million people in the United States and many more globally. It damages the brain&#8217;s ability to communicate with the rest of the body, making it hard to walk, write, or hold a fork and knife. This happens because of damage to the insulation around the nerves. Just like a frayed wire, a nerve with damaged insulation can short out or send bad signals.<\/p>\n<p>But the damage isn&#8217;t permanent, at least not at first. Most people with multiple sclerosis have recurring episodes of disability, followed by remissions when their symptoms lessen or disappear.<\/p>\n<p>Why these relapses and remissions happen is a great mystery. We know that the damage to the nerves is caused by immune system, the army of cells in our body that is supposed to protect us from disease-causing invaders. For some reason, in MS, the immune system turns on cells in the brain and spinal cord. In MS patients, a particular type of immune cell &#8211; CD8+cells, a part of the immune system that normally kills cells that are cancerous or infected &#8211; seem to be he ones doing the damage.<\/p>\n<p>Although researchers have been able to develop drugs to help fight MS using a mouse version of MS, these experimental mice develop a slightly different immune system response that what happens in MS in humans. Different cells do the damage in MS mice: CD4+ cells. The mice have CD8+ cells, but those CD8+ cells are generally quiescent. This has been a big stumbling block to understanding how the immune system develops in MS.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2019\/05\/new-culprit-multiple-sclerosis-relapses\/\">&#8230;read more<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As posted in the UConn Today, May 9, 2019 &#8211;\u00a0Kim Krieger &#8211; UConn Communications &nbsp; A molecule that helps blood clot may also play a role in multiple sclerosis relapses, research report in the May 6 issue of PNAS. The new research may help answer the mystery of why remissions happen, as well as find [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":4154,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-30 07:18:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4164"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4164"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4492,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4164\/revisions\/4492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/health.uconn.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}