
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 24, 1990                   TAG: 9005240009
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

STUDY NARROWS TARGET IN HUNT FOR MS THERAPY

The body's misguided attack on nerve tissue, which triggers multiple sclerosis, may involve only a few types of white blood cells, according to a study that could give leads for developing new treatments.

Strategies that block just those types of cells may be able to treat the disease, said study co-author Dr. Lawrence Steinman of Stanford University.

"We just want to get rid of the cells that are causing the trouble," Steinman said.

The work is a major step toward better understanding of the disease, said Stephen Reingold, National Multiple Sclerosis Society vice president for research and medical programs.

It would be "very attractive indeed" to be able to block just disease-causing blood cells, rather than risking side effects from experimental drugs that more broadly affect the immune system, he said.

But Reingold stressed that the new study included only three patients, so that its importance for multiple sclerosis in general is not clear.

He said any development of new therapies would be far in the future.

An estimated 250,000 Americans have multiple sclerosis, an often disabling condition that can produce weakness, difficulty in coordination, dizziness and loss of balance.

It occurs when the body, for unknown reasons, attacks nerve tissue in the brain and spinal cord. Research suggests that white blood cells called T-cells, which normally attack germs, play a critical role.

The new study, which focuses on T-cells, is reported in today's issue of the British journal Nature by researchers at Stanford, LaTrobe University in Australia and Cetus Corp. in Emeryville, Calif.

They focused on structures called receptors located on the surface of T-cells. The cells use receptors to bind to their targets, and the targets they can attack are determined by the types of receptor.

The researchers analyzed the types of T-cell receptors present in diseased brain tissue from three multiple sclerosis patients. They found two to four receptor types in each brain, which Steinman called surprisingly few.

In contrast, there are maybe 20 to 30 such receptor types used by T-cells in the body, with the exact number not known, said Dr. Henry McFarland of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

by CNB