http://www.bostoncure.org:8080/article.pl?sid=04/03/29/1219212&mode=nested

March 29th, 2004
Hollie
Boston Cure Project

Two prominent MS scientists, Hans Lassmann and Richard Ransohoff, have published a critique of the CD4+ T-cell driven model of autoimmunity that is so widely used in the study of MS. They argue that none of the predictions made by this model can be fully substantiated by the available evidence from the disease. For instance, they claim that the model does not account for the role and presence of CD8+ T cells in MS lesions, that predictions about the effect of cytokines such as TNF-alpha have been contradicted in clinical trials, and that the model fails to explain all of the neurodegeneration that takes place in MS. The authors recommend thinking about MS not as a single-mechanism disease but instead as a likely heterogeneous disease in which immune system components play a variety of roles, both helpful and harmful, at different times in conjunction with other factors.
 

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