Source University of California San Francisco:
Researchers at UC San Francisco have identified specific gut microbes associated with multiple sclerosis (MS) in human patients, and show that these microbes take part in regulating immune responses in mouse models of the disease.
The new findings – to be published during the week of Sept. 11, 2017, in the Online Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) – suggest that gut microbes may play a role in the neurodegeneration that characterizes MS. The authors hope the finding will help scientists understand the origins of MS and potentially lead to treatments, such as dietary changes or drugs based on microbial byproducts, that could improve the course of the disease. Read on.