Are we close to a breakthrough for Multiple Sclerosis?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 4 April 2024
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disease which can lead to loss of mobility and vision. Almost 3 million people worldwide are affected by it. There is no cure, but attempts are being made to accelerate the healing process with treatments to restore what the disease has damaged.
At the same time, scientists have recently discovered a link between MS and a common virus that the majority of us carry in our bodies. It had been known for years that there was a link between Multiple Sclerosis and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). But then, a study finally proved the link.
Now, trials are underway on potential vaccines against EBV and scientists are hopeful that this could be a gateway to preventing MS.
This week on the Inquiry we are asking: Are we close to a breakthrough for Multiple Sclerosis?
Contributors:
Tim Coetzee, Chief Advocacy, Services & Science Officer for the National MS Society, US Tjalf Ziemssen, Professor of Clinical Neuroscience and Head of the Multiple Sclerosis Center and Neuroimmunological Laboratory, University Clinic Carl-Gustav Carus, Germany Jeffrey Huang, Associate Professor of Biology, Georgetown University, US Claire Shannon-Lowe, Associate Professor in Virology, Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy at the University of Birmingham, UK
Production team:
Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Matt Toulson Researcher: Ajai Singh Editor: Tara McDermott Studio Manager: Hal Haines Production Co-ordinator: Liam Morrey
Image Credit: Shidlovski\Getty
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
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| 0:14.0 | Cladie Aide. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less searching |
| 0:25.7 | and a lot more watching. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.7 | Welcome to the inquiry on the BBC World Service with me Tanya Beckett. |
| 0:34.4 | One question, four expert witnesses and an answer. |
| 0:41.0 | In February 2024, Medicine marked the loss of a scientist whose work had over many decades shed extraordinary light on the cause of a string of diseases. |
| 0:53.0 | Half a century ago, Anthony Epstein and his research partner, |
| 0:57.0 | Yvonne Barr, discovered a virus which was later named after both of them. |
| 1:02.0 | In most cases patients infected with the Epstein-Bar |
| 1:06.5 | virus barely know they're ill. In others it goes on to cause glandular fever. |
| 1:11.6 | Either way this so-called kissing disease has the capacity to hide |
| 1:16.5 | in our bodies for a lifetime. What the Epstein-Bar duo showed was that the virus they discovered, far from being obscure |
| 1:25.7 | and benign, was not only extremely common, but was also one of the factors leading to certain |
| 1:32.4 | types of cancer. There were also very |
| 1:35.6 | early suspicions that the virus could be a contributing cause of the |
| 1:40.0 | neurological disease, multiple sclerosis. But proving that seemed elusive. |
| 1:47.0 | Then, two years ago, an examination of millions of blood samples taken from soldiers in the American military |
... |
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