The exact cause of multiple sclerosis has not yet been uncovered. What is common knowledge is that it is one of the most debilitating diseases to attack the neurological system, resulting in muscle weakness, loss of vision and problems with coordination.
And while there has been a vaccine for healthy patients to prevent it and other infectious diseases, on the market for some time now, there has not been much hope for a patient already suffering from MS or multiple sclerosis.
MS occurs when the body's immune system wrongly attacks myelin - the protective fatty sheaths that surround nerve fibers in the central nervous system, which are then easily destroyed, causing irreversible and worsening symptoms such as weakness and vision loss.
Now, a newly developed DNA vaccine may be instrumental in producing changes that are beneficial to the brains and the immune systems of those living with the disease.
According to Dr. Amit Bar-or, neurologist and neuroimmunologist from the Montreal Neurological Institute, the DNA vaccine has passed initial safety tests.
Developed by Dr Amit Bar-Or and colleagues, The DNA vaccine known as BHT-3009 includes the sequence of myelin basic protein (MBP) which is a particular material in myelin that is responsible for the protection of the body's nerve cells and enables the quick passage of signals along the nerves. This protein is thought to be one of the targets of MS. When DNA is introduced into the cells in the body, it then starts to make the protein. The vaccine is thus expected to reduce the damage caused by MS sufferers' immune cells on their nervous systems.
In the trial, half of 30 patients, all of whom suffered from relapsing and remitting multiple sclerosis, the most common form of the disease, had the vaccine injected into their muscles over periods of one, three, five and nine weeks. Half of them received a statin drug instead. They were monitored over the course of the year.
When the efficacy of the vaccine was evaluated through MRI scans it was found that the white blood cell known for targeting the myelin was reduced in the blood and spinal fluid of those who had received the vaccine. The statin drug, however, did not seem to make much difference to the efficacy of the vaccine.
When the doctors went on to test blood from the patients to see how the subject's immune systems had responded to the vaccine, they found that the levels of immune cells known to t specifically attack myelin sheaths, together with levels of antibodies which are also implicated in the disease, had decreased.
The number of brain lesions among those who took the vaccine were also reduced.
Any side effects were brief and were considered to be mild or moderate, according to a report in the US journal Archives of Neurology.
Reporting this in the journal Archives of Neurology on Monday,, Dr Bar-Or said"BHT-3009 was safe and well tolerated, provided favorable trends on brain MRI and produced beneficial immune changes."
Meanwhile, research manager at the MS Society, Alison Handford, commented: "These are very early but encouraging findings and we welcome the news that researchers are planning another trial, which we hope will yield positive results."
The scientists are now carrying out a more extensive 12-month trial of the vaccine on 290 patients. If that is successful, it could herald DNA vaccines for a range of other diseases caused by over-active immune systems, type I diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis being among them.
