BIOL 2299 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Multiple Sclerosis, Myelin, Spasm
16 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
Caused by de-myelination of axons in brain. Symptoms: numbness, tingling, dizziness, vision problems, pain, walking difficulty, weakness, muscle spasms, cognitive dysfunction. Symptoms for a short duration and then they go away and repeat. May remain symptom-free for months or years: secondary-progressive. Disease slowly progressing and getting worse overtime: primary-progressive. With or without remission: can go from relapsing-remitting to progressive-relapsing. Symptoms relapse and remit and then change to never remitting. No one really knows how or why it starts: some genetic component, makes it more likely but does not guarantee it, may be a viral, environmental component. Usually starts affecting people in their 20"s. Possible treatments: make t-cells recognize antigen as part of the cell and not a foreign object. Prevent the t cells from making their way into the cns: lower number of t cells available. Can have other affects: degrade the antibodies. Problem is that b cells are still producing the antibodies.
