Doctors Find Potential Means To Prevent MS and Arthritis

A team of researchers at the Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has developed a potentially important new approach to combatting diseases such as multiple sclerosis and arthritis.

Completing two years of research, the teams--led by Dr. Ellis L. Reinherz `71, assistant professor of medicine--succeeded in shutting off malfunctioning cells that cause the so-called auto-immune diseases.

While experts said that the advance in significant, they estimated that practical application of the discovery may be years away.

In auto-immune diseases, certain cells--comprising 80 percent of the body's disease-fighting system--become unregulated and attack parts of the body. In multiple sclerosis, the so-called T-cells attack the tissue that surrounds nerves. In arthritis the T-cells damage tissue in the body's joints.

The Harvard team was the first to successfully halt the malfunctioning T-cells using a new approach that is more specific and less damaging than previous methods, Dr. Stefan C. Meuer, a member of the research group, said yesterday.

Meuer explained that the new technique involves producing antibodies that do not destroy the T-cells, but rather, latch onto the T-cells, but rather, latch onto the T-cells and prevent them from causing damage.

Reinhertz could not be reached for comment yesterday, but he told The Boston Globe on Thursday that the discovery "may provide a powerful strategy in the near future for the control of auto-immune diseases," and "is an immunologist's dream."

Dr. James Kernick '68, an immunologist at Massachusetts General Hospital who was not involved in the work, was more reserved in his appraisal of the breakthrough. "One must be cautious in predicting the applicability of this development," he said.