A toxin produced by a common food poisoning bacterium may cause of multiple sclerosis, MS, an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system, according to a recent study Fox News reported.
Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in Sweden found that the epsilon toxin, made by a "rare strain of Clostridium perfringens," caused MS-like damage in the brain, leading them to believe that the foodborne bacterium is an environmental trigger for the beginning of MS symptoms.
"[Earlier research] in the lab has shown that MS patients are 10 times more immune-reactive to the epsilon toxin than healthy patients," Dr. Jennifer Linden of Weill Cornell Medical College told Fox News.
Earlier studies by the same team have shown that the toxin acts similarly to MS in that they both "have the ability to permeate the blood-brain barrier - a filtration-like system that typically prevents toxins from travelling from a person's blood into their brain," Fox News reported citing the study.
In the recent study, Linden and her colleagues found that epsilon toxin also kills cells that produce myelin - a protective sheath that surrounds "neurons and allows them to transmit signals in the brain." This is also happens to people with MS when they begin to develop lesions in their brains.
They also found that the toxin disrupts meningeal cells, which form the layer of membranes between the skull and the brain.
"In MS there is meningeal inflammation and it was interesting that the toxin also killed these cells," Linden said. "What we're finding out is this toxin seems to have an affinity for a lot of the cells affected in MS, aside from just the blood-brain barrier and myelin producing cells - specifically blood vessels in the retina and meningeal cells."
Based on their findings, researchers believe that the epsilon toxin plays as initiative role in the development of "brain lesions that are distinctly characteristic in multiple sclerosis," the Examiner reported.
Researchers said they plan to develop a vaccine specific to the epsilon toxin, that would prevent the development of multiple sclerosis in people with a genetic tendency to develop the disease.
