By Nathan Seppa Web edition : June 6, 2012, 3:57 pm By delving
into the components of protective nerve coatings that get
damaged in multiple sclerosis, scientists have identified a
handful of lipid molecules that appear to be attacked by an
immune system run amok. Bolstering the supply of these lipids
might help preserve these nerve coatings and, in the process,
knock back the inflammation that contributes to their
destruction, researchers report in the June 6 Science
Translational Medicine. In MS patients, rogue antibodies assault
myelin, the fatty sheath that insulates nerves and facilitates
signaling. Inflammation exacerbates the attack on myelin and the
cells that make it. But other details of MS, including the roles
of myelin lipids, have been less clearly understood. “I think
this is a very good study,” says Francisco Quintana, an
immunologist at Harvard Medical School. “Overall, there are not
many papers on lipids in MS. Technically, they are challenging
and require a lot of expertise.” http://www.scie