A research team has investigated the relationship between Tregs (regulatory T cells) and how it affects the progress of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). ALS is a neurological disease which attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control muscle movement which causes muscles to degenerate. It causes paralysis and ultimately death within an average of 3-5 years.
Tregs regulate or suppress other cells in the immune system, maintain the tolerance for self-antigens and still help prevent autoimmune diseases. Hope is placed that this discovery would help in developing needed ALS treatment says the co-lead author of the study obtained from the research, Dr. Fiona McKay from the Westmead Institute for Medical Research. There is currently no cure or effective treatment for the disease. Its cause isn’t even known. The development of new therapies to treat the disease is a major priority for our research team, says Professor Steve Vucic at the Motor Neuron Disease Clinic at Westmead Hospital.
In the conducted research, the progress of ALS was seen to be considerably slower in human patients with high levels of Tregs. Tregs levels were also increased in mice with ALS using a treatment never used for the treatment of ALS, it further slowed the disease progress and still preserved motor neurons. These findings are positively exciting as it extends the human findings of the benefits of Tregs, and so, means to increase levels of Tregs in humans are being researched in the fight to finally be able to control the disease.
