Research on multiple sclerosis gains “Oscars of Science”

An American neurologist and an Italian epidemiologist whose work has revolutionized the treatment of sclerosis in plates on Saturday won a prestigious breakthrough prize, the prize nicknamed the “Oscars of Science”.

Stephen Hauser and Alberto Ascherio were recognized for their decades to seek debilitating neurodegenerative disease, which affects nearly three million people worldwide and has long been considered an impenetrable enigma.

The work of hause on multiple sclerosis (MS) started over 45 years ago, when he met a young patient named Andrea, “an extraordinarily talented young woman who was already a lawyer” and working in the White House under Jimmy Carter of the time, he told AFP.

“Then MS appeared explosively and destroyed his life,” he said.

“I remember seeing it, unable to speak, paralyzed on the right side, unable to swallow, and soon, unable to breathe alone, and I remember thinking that it was the most unfair thing I have ever seen in medicine.”

Then 27 years old, he decided to do his work of life.

Rugged road

“At the time, we had no treatment for MS. In fact, there was also a pessimism that treatments could never be developed,” said Hauser, now 74 years old and director of neuroscience Institute of the University of California San Francisco.

Scientists knew the disease, which damages the central nervous system And leads to paralyzing cognitive and engines problems, was caused by the immune system that was running on the body.

But they thought the white blood cells Known as T cells were the lonely culprit.

Hauser questioned this.

By studying the role played in the disease by B cells, another type of white blood cells, he and his colleagues have managed to recreate the damage caused by ME to the human nervous system in small monkeys called Ouistits.

The American federal organization supervising medical research rejected the link as “biologically incredible” and refused its request for funding for a clinical trial.

But Hauser and his team continued.

They convinced the pharmaceutical company Genentech for support tests. In 2006, they obtained resounding results: the treatments targeting B cells were associated with “a dramatic reduction of more than 90% of brain inflammation,” said Hauser.

It was “something of a scope that had never been seen before”.

This has opened a door to market new treatments that slow down the advance of the disease in many patients.

But that also raised other questions. For example, what would our white blood cells turn against us?

Viral connection

It was a question that intrigued Ascherio, now a professor at Harvard.

He decided to study why MS mainly affected people in the northern hemisphere.

“The geographic distribution of the MS has been quite striking,” he told AFP.

“SEP is very rare in tropical countries and near the equator.”

This made him wonder if a virus could be involved.

He and his team carried out a long -term study after millions of young US military recruits.

After almost 20 years of research, they found an answer. In 2022, they confirmed a link between the MS and the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a common infection responsible for another well-known disease, with infectious mononucleosis or a mono.

“Most people infected with EBV will never develop SEP,” said Ascherio, 72.

But all those who develop the MS first had the EBV.

The discovery has still not explained why the MS occurs. But he has fueled the hope of finding new treatments and preventive measures for an illness that remains unavy and whose current treatments do not work on all patients.

Ascherio’s breakthrough could also help deal with other conditions.

“We are now trying to extend our survey, to study the role of viral infection in other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis“, Also known as Als or Lou Gehrig’s disease, he said.

The link remains theoretical for the moment. But “there is evidence,” he said.

“It’s like where we were on MS 20 or 30 years ago.”

© 2025 AFP