'Trojan horse' treatment for MS shows promising results in lab tests

Researcher Josef Buttigieg has always been interested in how the nervous system works, but when it comes to multiple sclerosis, it's personal.

Buttigieg has several friends with the disease and has seen first hand what it can do to people. That's part of what makes his latest research at the University of Regina important for him, he said. They're trying to develop a "Trojan horse" against multiple sclerosis, and have promising results from early lab trials.

MS is an autoimmune diseasein which a person's immune system begins to think theirown body is a foreign substance and starts to destroy it. Specifically, the disease attacks myelin, an insulating layeror sheath that forms around nerves, including those in the brain and spinal cord. This sheath allows electrical impulses to transmit quickly and efficiently along the nerve cells.

"The end result of destroying that insulation is that it causes your neurons to short circuit and then that leads to paralysis," Buttigieg said. "And unfortunately for many people, leads to eventual death."

The Trojan horse idea originally started with a story.

"I love history what happens with the story of Troy is the Athenians are attacking the Trojans, they give the Trojans what they want, which is basically a horse statueand what the Trojans don't know is that there is a couple Athenians hiding inside."

The Trojans bring the statue in. The Athenians destroy the gates and the city of Troy falls.

What Buttigieg has developed is similar in concept. Multiple sclerosis looks for a specific protein that's in the insulation of a person's neurons. So Buttigieg's team gave theimmune system of a mouse that protein with a twist.

Tied to the protein are two others, one of which kills theimmune cell that is attacking the myelin.

"So just like with a story of a Trojan horse, we're giving it what it wants but what it doesn't know is that there's a bomb hiding inside this protein," he said. "Once you eliminate the cause of the problem it gives the bodyan opportunity to repair itself."

Many current treatments only treat the symptoms, he said, making the person more comfortable and life more bearable, whereas his treatment would target the disease itself. This is important in Saskatchewan especially as it's a "hotbed" of multiple sclerosis, Buttigieg said.

Buttigieg and his team started the project in August 2018, and have been repeating it several times to make sure their results are the same each time.

So far they've been treating mice with multiple sclerosis through this method. Within a few weeks the mice have been starting to walk again after being in the severe stages of multiple sclerosis. It seems to be correcting the disease, he said.

The team has also observed that thetissue of the mice is starting to heal itself, and under a microscope can see that the immune cells that were attacking the body are gone.

I have a bit of a personal vendetta when it comes to M.S. So I want to see this get accelerated as soon as possible.- Josef Buttigieg

After the promising results, Buttigieg hopes to have a clinical trial soon.First, they plan to testthe treatment on patient's blood. People who have multiple sclerosis have donated blood for them to see how the immune system in the blood reacts to the proteins.

Buttigieg said his "dream time" to start clinical trials would be tomorrow. But that depends on a number of things, he said, including support from the public, support from the government, and funding.

"Now I have a bit of a personal vendetta when it comes to M.S. So I want to see this get accelerated as soon as possible."