Estrogen Treatment Has Positive Effects In Treatment Of MS

Cellular basis of how estrogen protects against damage to the central nervous system in people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis has been shown in a study that was conducted by researcher from UCLA, in which estrogen treatments exerted positive effects on 2 types of cells: oligodendrocytes and immune cells in the brain. The favourable actions on these 2 types of cells provide protect from disease.

The chronic autoimmune neurodegenerative disease multiple sclerosis is characterized with symptoms including weakness, cognitive decline, sensory loss, and visual impairment. Symptoms emerge when inflammatory immune cells attack and destroy myelin sheath surrounding nerve axons processes, leading to the disruption of electrical communication between nerve cells as a result of the loss of the protective insulation.

It has been shown previously that third trimester pregnancy reduces relapse rates by close to 70%, and other studies shown the benefit over long term relating to multiple pregnancies. Pregnancy produces an estrogen unique to it, that is made by the placenta and fetus. Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl and colleagues propose to mediate this pregnancy protection in mice modelled to resemble multiple sclerosis,  as well as in 2 successfully conducted clinical trials of the estriol treatments in patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Voskuhl reports that estrogen had protected the brains of mice from damage in the latest study by activating a protein called estrogen receptor beta. This new research was able to identify which cells within the brain that it is that are mediating this protective effect.

ERb was genetically eliminated in either the oligodendrocytes or in the immune cells as a way to make the cells unresponsive to estrogen during the testing in mice. Mice were treated with or without ERb in the cells to determine if protection was lost. The treatment was acting on the cells that had had the receptor removed meaning there was loss of protection. The estrogen like treatment was acting on both the oligodendrocytes and the immune cells of the brain together, resulting in decreased disability and the repairing of the myelin.

The development of drugs therapies are often optimized by targeting a single cell type. This study shows that this estrogen like compound has the ability to combat multiple sclerosis with positive effects on 2 distinct cell types at the same time. The team is working on the development of a compound using the findings of this study.