A possible way to early treatment of multiple sclerosis it seems that scientists from the University of California in San Francisco are opening, who found that the signs of the disease appear in the blood of some patients years before the symptoms.

The researchers analyzed the blood of 250 MS patients who were members of the Armed Forces. Samples were collected after their diagnosis, but also five or more years earlier, when they enlisted in the military. Blood samples from 250 healthy veterans were also tested.

They found that in about one in ten cases of multiple sclerosis, the body begins to produce a characteristic set of antibodies against its own proteins, years before symptoms appear. These autoantibodies may explain the immune attacks on the brain and spinal cord that are the hallmark of multiple sclerosis. Specifically, patients with these autoantibodies were found to have increased levels of low-molecular-weight neurofibrillar (Nfl), protein molecules found inside neurons that are released when neurons are damaged by the disease.

The research team then analyzed blood samples from patients who took part in another University study, where again 10% of those diagnosed with multiple sclerosis had the same pattern of autoantibodies.

Many questions remain about MS, from what triggers the immune response in some patients to how the disease develops in the remaining 90% of patients. However, the researchers believe they now have a definitive marker for the onset of multiple sclerosis and hope that the autoantibodies they discovered could one day be detected with a simple blood test, giving patients a head start on treatment.

The findings are published in the journalNature Medicine’.