Multiple Sclerosis turns out to be triggered by a food-borne illness

[gturner]

PLOSone abstract from October, “Isolation of Clostridium perfringens Type B in an Individual at First Clinical Presentation of Multiple Sclerosis Provides Clues for Environmental Triggers of the Disease.”

The strain produces a toxin called “epsilon” (there are five strains of the bacteria whose toxins are called alpha, beta, etc.) and which afflicts sheep and cattle, but it wasn’t previously suspected to affect humans. Doctors detected the strain in a woman who was showing the first signs of MS, then checked other MS patients for prior exposure and found they were 10 times more likely to show immunoreactivity to epsilon toxin than the control group of healthy people.

So they just finished testing the affects of the epsilon toxin itself, and it happens to attack the cells affected by MS in the same way they see in MS patients.

NBC News link

The good news is that we already have vaccines for it for farm animals, and have already developed some antibody techniques to combat the toxin in people in case it is ever used as a weapon. The scary news is that this strain has been detected in about 3% of food samples.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Re: Multiple Sclerosis turns out to be triggered by a food-borne illne

Your headline is misleading--the scientists involved are not making a direct jump to "MS is caused by food poisoning," as they don't know that for sure just yet. It's an intriguing possibility, but let's not spread information that hasn't been more thoroughly confirmed.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Re: Multiple Sclerosis turns out to be triggered by a food-borne illne

It's a very interesting thesis, though. And at a first glance it looks promising. Thanks for bringing it to our attention, gturner!
I'm a bit surprised that of all bacteria it's Clostridium perfringens. It is a species regularly found in human intestines and helps us digest complex carbs. It's also a regular guest on everything decaying, particularly in infected wounds. And it's known to cause food poisoning and gangrene. I wouldn't therefore dare to exclude the possibility that in MS-patients it's present because of the cellular decay and not causing it. Like other bacteria it may profit from a weakened immune system.

It's certainly a topic that requires more research. A very thrilling outlook