MS step 'remarkable'.

SCIENTISTS have taken a major step forward in understanding how to reduce the severity of multiple sclerosis, a university has claimed. A team at the University of Bristol carried out tests on mice and then on human brain tissue and found that the neuropeptide "galanin" was resistant to the MS-like disease, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE).

Prof David Wynick, who works on the function of galanin in the relief of neuropathic pain, initiated the project and worked with Profs David Wraith and Neil Scolding on the research. Prof Wraith, who is working on a vaccine for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, said: "The results were really remarkable. Rarely do you see such a dramatic effect as this.

"Mice with high levels of galanin just didn't develop any signs of disease.

"We have a lot more to do to figure out how this works but the results are extremely promising."

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