Longevity science

An international team of scientists has recently reported success in the first phase of clinical trials in which MS victims’ immune systems were conditioned to become much more tolerant of myelin.\

In the study, white blood cells were obtained from nine MS-afflicted test subjects. These cells were specially processed, coupled with myelin antigens, and then injected intravenously back into their respective donors – up to 3 billion of these dead, treated cells were injected into each person.

When they entered the spleen, which filters dead cells from the bloodstream, both the white blood cells themselves and their myelin antigen payloads were identified by the body as being innocuous. This caused the immune system to become 50 to 75 percent less reactive to myelin, depending on the person and the number of cells injected.

Using brain cells created from human skin cells, scientists may be on their way to developing a treatment for multiple sclerosis.

If the myelin of MS sufferers could be regrown, then it’s possible that the disease could be cured. Recently, a team of scientists successfully regenerated myelin in mice, using human skin cells that were reprogrammed into brain cells.