UCSF researchers unveil that multiple sclerosis begins attacking the brain well before symptoms appear, potentially leading to earlier diagnosis and new preventive strategies.
A new study from UC San Francisco (UCSF) has uncovered that multiple sclerosis (MS) starts damaging the brain long before symptoms show. This significant finding could pave the way for earlier diagnosis and potentially even new methods of preventing the disease.
The research, published today in the journal Nature Medicine, offers the most detailed timeline yet of MS’s early effects on the nervous system.
According to the study, the immune system begins its assault on the brain earlier than previously believed, targeting the myelin sheath — a protective layer around nerve fibers — well before the onset of clinical symptoms.
New Understanding of MS Development
“We think our work opens numerous opportunities for diagnosing, monitoring, and possibility treating MS,” first and co-lead author Ahmed Abdelhak, an assistant professor of neurology at UCSF, said in a news release. “It could be a gamechanger for how we understand and manage this disease.”
The researchers analyzed over 5,000 proteins in blood samples from 134 individuals with MS, both pre- and post-diagnosis.
These samples were sourced from the U.S. Department of Defense Serum Repository, which stores samples from armed service members when they enlist, allowing the researchers to study changes over extended periods.
Key Findings and Future Implications
Seven years before an MS diagnosis, the researchers noticed an elevation in myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG), indicating early myelin damage.
One year after this spike, elevated levels of neurofilament light chain appeared, signaling damage to nerve fibers themselves.
In conjunction with these changes, interleukin-3 (IL-3) and other immune signaling proteins appeared in the blood, orchestrating an immune response. IL-3 is particularly crucial as it recruits immune cells to the brain and spinal cord to attack nerve cells.
These insights offer a roadmap of the disease’s progression, illuminating the sequence of events leading to clinical MS.
Diagnostic and Preventive Potential
The team identified around 50 proteins indicative of future MS onset and has applied for a patent for a diagnostic blood test based on the top 21 proteins.
Senior author Ari Green, the chief of the Division of Neuroimmunology and Glial Biology in the UCSF Department of Neurology, highlighted the long-term promise of these findings.
“We now know that MS starts way earlier than the clinical onset, creating the real possibility that we could someday prevent MS — or at least use our understanding to protect people from further injury,” he said in the news release.