Nov 1, 2010
The Federal Government has awarded north Queensland's James Cook University (JCU) $180,000 over the next three years to identify the leading causes of multiple sclerosis (MS).
Researchers hope to understand how a breakdown of the immune system can leads to the disease.
Professor Alan Baxter says his team of researchers is also studying how environmental factors can contribute to the disease.
"It would appear that what's causing that is the exposure to sun or the ability of exposure to sun to generate vitamin D," he said.
"In places where there's little sun exposure there's low levels of vitamin D resulting in high levels of MS and in places like Townsville where there's high levels of exposure there's very little MS."
Professor Baxter says initial research suggests a breakdown in the immune system can lead to MS.
"The difference that we're seeing in our preliminary data is that it's really quite stark and it suggests that within a couple of years we should have a much better idea of what's going wrong with the immune system in MS and then on the basis of that, we could plan future therapies," he said.
Article source found here
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