Blocking a death receptor causes damaged myelin, the protective
coating surrounding nerve cells, to repair itself, according to
a study published Sunday (July 3) in Nature Medicine. The
finding suggests that drugs targeting the receptor could help
treat multiple sclerosis by reversing the myelin damage
characteristic of the disease. “Showing remyelination, as they
do in vivo and in vitro, is a pretty cool result,” said Richard
Ransohoff, a Cleveland Clinic neuroscientist who was not
involved in the work. The new receptor is a novel first step in
potentially repairing damaged nerves of multiple sclerosis
patients, he said. Current multiple sclerosis drugs slow the
disease’s progression by quieting the inflammatory response of
the immune system, which attacks the myelin surrounding nerve
cells and kills oligodendrocytes, brain cells that make and
repair myelin. Without their myelin, nerve cells gradually lose
their ability to send electrical signals. But because they
suppress the immune response, these drugs ma