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1ST TIME HERE?.....CLICK THE FLASHING RED BUTTON ON THE LEFT! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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March 03, 2006
"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Johns Hopkins Medicine Office of Corporate Communications PROTEIN FRAGMENT MAY GENERATE FIRST SIMPLE TEST FOR MS Johns Hopkins scientists report the discovery of a protein found only in cerebrospinal fluid that they say might be useful in identifying a subgroup of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) or identifying those at risk for the debilita The federally funded Johns Hopkins research, reported in the February issue of the Annals of Neurology, is important, the researchers say, because unlike other autoimmune diseases in which the body attacks its own tissues, MS cannot be diagnosed with a simple blood or other test. While it is recognized that there might be several forms of MS, laboratory-based tests need to be developed to diagnose these subtypes. "There is the possibility now that the protein we identified, 12.5 kDa cystatin, can be used to diagnose MS, perhaps in its earliest stages, and also to monitor treatment by measuring its levels in CSF," says Avindra Nath, M.D., a professor in the Department of Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and lead author of the study. " |