Multiple Sclerosis Essay example -- Biology Essays Research Papers

Multiple Sclerosis Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous system. It most commonly occurs in individuals between the ages of twenty and forty (1) and in higher numbers of women than men (2). In Multiple Sclerosis (or "MS") a loss of the nerves' axon coating myelin prohibits the nerve axons from efficiently conducting action and synaptic potentials. Scar tissue (called plaques or lesions) forms at the points where demyelination occurs in the brain and spinal cord, hence the name "Multiple Sclerosis"or "many scars" (3). The demyelination found in MS is thought to be caused by an autoimmune process, in which the body's immune system attacks its own healthy tissue (4). Other diseases thought to have an autoimmune basis are rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus and the insulin dependent form of diabetes mellitus(5). In the immune system, there are two types of white blood cells, B-cells and T-cells. T-cells exist in three forms, all responsible for different immune system responses. Helper T-cells recognize foreign antigens (the substance the immune system aims to destroy), stimulate antibody production, and produce cytokines (chemicals which act as biological messengers) which activate other T-cells. These T-cells are able to recognize antigens through their receptors, made of protein molecules that selectively bind to certain other molecules. Suppressor T-cells perform a function converse to that of their helper counterparts, turning off the immune system response. Cytotoxic T-cells directly attack and destroy antigenic material (6). In MS, an unknown trigger activates helper T-cells whose antigen specific receptors recognize central nervous system myelin as an antigen. While what exactly activates these T-cel... ... MS GENETIC SUSCEPTIBILITY http://www.nmss.org/msinfo/current_research/updates/RMP9620.html 25) VIRUSES http://www.nmss.org/cmsi/cmsi18.html 26) Remyelination Progress Reported http://www.myelin.org/puppress.html 27) EXPERIMENTAL ALLERGIC ENCEPHALOMYELITIS http://www.nmss.org/cmsi/cmsi157.html 28) Current Research Updates http://www.nmss.org/msinfo/current_research/updates/summary.html 29) Virtual Hospital, Chapter 14: Neurology: MS http://www.vh.org/Providers/ClinRef/FPHandbook/Chapter14/08-14.html Other WWW Sites 30) Knowledge Weavers http://medstat.med.utah.edu/kw/ms/ 31) World of Multiple Sclerosis http://www.msif.org/language_choice.html 32) National Multiple Sclerosis Society http://www.nmss.org/ 33) MS Gateway http://www.ms-gateway.com/ 34) MS Gateway Glossary http://www.ms-gateway.com/glossary.html