The Rockefeller University

Identifying the Initial Triggers of Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

Purpose

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the brain in which brain blood vessels and the fatty tissue that insulates nerve cells myelin are damaged. How these brain tissues are damaged remains unknown. We have identified a toxin that is produced by the intestinal bacterium Clostridium perfringens as a possible trigger for MS. This bacterial toxin named epsilon toxin specifically damages brain blood vessels and brain myelin. To attack the brain the toxin must travel from the intestine and into the bloodstream. Momentary presence of the toxin in the blood circulation may give us an opportunity to validate the epsilon toxin-MS hypothesis if we can identify epsilon toxin in blood samples harvested from MS patients during periods of active disease. Accurately determining the percentage of MS patients that actively carry Clostridium perfringens bacteria in their intestines may also provide important supporting evidence for the hypothesis. In this study we wish to collect blood and stool samples from MS patients in an effort to detect blood-borne epsilon toxin and fecal carriage of Clostridium perfringens bacteria.