California Researchers Find Crucial MS Gene

A crucial gene involved in the development of multiple sclerosis has been identified by researchers at Stanford University Medical Center and UC San Francisco.

The gene, osteopontin, is already known to be a factor in the inflammatory immune response characteristic of MS. But now researchers believe it may be positioned at a number of checkpoints in the progression of the disease.

The findings could lead to targeted new therapies for MS, which affects about 1 million people worldwide. The disease is incurable and the cause is unknown.

Dr. Larry Steinman, professor of neurology at Stanford and Jorge Oksenberg, associate professor of neurology at UC San Francisco, examined autopsied brains from MS patients to learn more about the disease.

Steinman and Oksenberg shared senior authorship on a paper explaining their findings, which appears in today’s issue of Science.