A Treatment for MS?

REPORTS ON EXPERIMENTAL MEDICAL TREATMENTS are routinely sprinkled with caveats, but a paper in the latest Science is more cautious than most. "It must be strongly emphasized," writes a group of Harvard immunologists, "that this study does not demonstrate efficacy." Even so, the news brought a bit of hope to sufferers of a disease that brings mostly despair. The scientists are working on a treatment for multiple sclerosis, the nerve ailment that robs victims of muscle control and, too often, life itself.

MS is thought to be an autoimmune disease, in which the body mistakenly attacks its own tissues -- in this case myelin, which insulates nerve cells. The researchers desensitized 15 patients to myelin by feeding them myelin from cows. After a year, the group had suffered fewer MS attacks than 15 others who did not receive the treatment. The question is, Did the ingested myelin train immune systems to tolerate the substance -- the technique works in rats -- or was it just a coincidence? The frustrating answer: More study is needed.