MS Study Questions Safety of Bacteria commonly used to increase immune response

In a recent study, a team of researchers argued that, contrary to what has been proposed,subclinical Bordetella pertussis colonization is an important cause of multiple sclerosis (MS). The study, “The potential role of subclinical Bordetella Pertussis colonization in the etiology of multiple sclerosis,” was published in the journal Immunobiology.

The bacteria Bordetella pertussis and its secreted toxin have been extensively used within the last 50 years as a potent adjuvant, or substance added to a vaccine to increase the body’s immune response to it. When co-administered with neural antigens, the bacteria induces neuropathology in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, the key animal model for human MS.

Researchers now hypothesize that subclinical Bordetella pertussis nasopharyngeal colonization is not innocuous to hosts, and can actually behave as a human neuropathogen causing MS.

The team reviewed three epidemiological cases that offer evidence supporting their hypothesis. The first is the major MS-related epidemiologic phenomenon of the last century — the MS epidemic in the Faroe Islands during and immediately after World War II. According to the article, authors who studied the outbreak noted that “MS is the rare late outcome of a specific but unknown infectious disease of adolescence and young adulthood.”

The second evidence comes from —  LEARN MORE

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