Ebiomedicine: a new diagnostic technique for multiple sclerosis

February 12, 2021 // --- Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is the most common neurological disease among young people, affecting more than 2 million people worldwide and about 1,500 cases in Estonia.
about 20% of MS patients develop optic neuritis (ON) as a symptom, but not all patients develop MS.
(Photo: www.pixabay.com) TalTech's genetic technology research department published their findings in the journal EBioMedicine in collaboration with medical researchers at Protobios Oü Laboratory and the University of Helsinki.
lead author Helle Sadam and co-authors Marilis Jaago and Annika Rähni are PhDs.
students in the Department of Genetic Technology, TalTech's Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology.
"We've developed a very powerful technology called Mimotope Mutation Analysis (MVA) and patented it to develop diagnostic tests for new drug targets," said lead researcher Kaia Palm, associate professor of gene technology at TalTech and head of research at Protobios Oü. The description and portrayal is based on the understanding of the diversity of the human B-cell immune response or antibody spectrum, and the B-lymphocyte-mediated immune response plays an important role in both (MS and ON) occurrence, so it is a promising target for detecting early diagnostic biomarkers of named diseases.
Commenting on the importance of this work, Professor Pentti Tienari, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Helsinki and co-author of the study, said: "THE treatment of MS is most effective and starts early, but very few biomarkers can be used to identify high-risk groups after the onset of optic neuritis.
Co-author Professor Antti Vaheri, Emeritus Professor of Virology at the University of Helsinki, added: "It is important to note that the critical involvement of viruses in neurological diseases has therapeutic significance, especially for herpes viruses with multiple antiviral agents.
published work, MVA analyzed more than 500 different clinical samples (including blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples) from patients in Finland and Estonia.
results provide a broad, high-resolution view of body fluid immunity associated with different cases, and report the prognostoral value of viral antibodies as new blood biomarkers that predict the risk of MS after the first ON.
(Bioon.com) Source: Scientists develop novel immune diagnostics of the original source of multiple sclerosis: Helle Sadam et al, Point out of two highly antigenic epitope markers predicting multiple sclerosis optic in neuritis patients, EBioMedicine (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2021.103211