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Scientists from the Queen's University in Belfast have specified key cells found in the immune system that are key players in brain repair. This cells could help revolutionize the treatment of neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis, turret syndrome, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy.

The Medical News Today cited a new breakthrough on how the brain manages to repair itself. The experiment initially tested on mice and tissue cultures reveals that a type of cell, known as T cells, found in the immune system capable of releasing proteins that trigger the regrowth of myelin. Myelin is a fatty, protective sheet that surrounds and insulate nerve fibers. Multiple sclerosis attacks and destroys myelin, resulting in the degeneration of the brain cells.

Senior author of the study, Dr. Denise Fitzgerald, sees this revelation as an important step in understanding the brain and spinal cord and how it can be naturally repaired. This can help in addressing multiple sclerosis and other degenerative neurological diseases where the immune system mistakenly attacks tissues of the central nervous system.

The Science Daily further adds that T cells showed substantial regeneration of myelin in tissue cells and laboratory mice used in the experiment. The T cells accelerated the developmental myelination and remyelination even the absence of inflammation in the experiment. With the discovered knowledge that myelin repair can be promoted and accelerated, new areas in treatment development for multiple sclerosis and other neuro-damaging diseases can be further exalted.

The majority of people who suffer from multiple sclerosis develop severe disabilities. The disease also has no evidence of being hereditary, but gene make-up plays a role in developing the illness.

At present, there is no cure for MS and although there are some approved drugs that can be used to reduce the frequency of attacks and delay the progression of the disease, treatment, and full recovery is not yet feasible. With this new discovery, further experimentations will be conducted to discover the potentials of repairing myelin and treating multiple sclerosis completely.