[thedoc (OP)]

John  asked the Naked Scientists:
   
What are the prospects for successful treatment that can halt the progress of Multiple Sclerosis, and perhaps even effect a cure? Is there much hope of real progress?

What do you think?

[Pecos_Bill]

Nobody here can answer better than the MS support group. Nothing concentrates the attention like a chronic disease and the support groups keep their ears to the ground as if their lives depended upon it. No pun intended.

Have you tried ...

http://www.mssociety.org.uk/ms-support/support-groups

HOWEVER, if you have time to kill you could do worse than finding a medical library -- try any major hospital -- and seeing what MS journals they have. As long as you don't tear out pages, they should let you sit and read all you want.

Or you can google up the abstracts of an article.

If you find out why MS is rare in the equatorial regions, come on back and clue us in.

[smart]

Endocannabinoid mediated signaling may facilitate endogenous remyelination. Hence, intracellular THC delivery can probably affect MS pathogenesis.

[RD]

Endocannabinoid mediated signaling may facilitate endogenous remyelination. Hence, intracellular THC delivery can probably affect MS pathogenesis.

Readers should bear in mind that remyelination does occur, to some degree, without treatment. Some people with MS experience astonishing near-complete spontaneous-recoveries because of natural remyelination.

I believe people with MS use cannabis for symptomatic-relief , rather than an attempt to slow disease progression.

... MS is rare in the equatorial regions ...

So are Scottish people ...

Orkney islands have highest rate of multiple sclerosis in the world – study
One in every 170 women in the islands has the degenerative neurological disease – and the incidence rate is rising

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/dec/10/orkney-islands-multiple-sclerosis-rate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founder_effect

[smart]

Readers should bear in mind that remyelination does occur, to some degree, without treatment. Some people with MS experience astonishing near-complete spontaneous-recoveries because of natural remyelination.
 

Failure in natural remyelination is a typical symptom of the pathogenesis of MS: Autoimmune inflammation and incomplete remyelination are the basis of this neurodegenerative disease. As a result, poor remyelination occurs and myelin is attacked by autoimmune inflammation.

The real question i believe is why natural remyelination eventually fails in patients with MS.

Furthermore can endocannabinoid mediated signaling affect endogenous remyelination through CB1 binding ?

[RD]

... can endocannabinoid mediated signaling affect endogenous remyelination...

Before discussing the subject any further, can you you provide any actual hard evidence that MS sufferers who use cannabis have slower progression of the disease ?. 

Here's some evidence that is not the case ...

Based on previous laboratory studies suggesting that certain types of cannabinoids may protect the nervous system, Dr. John Zajicek (Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry) and colleagues in the United Kingdom conducted a three-year clinical trial (CUPID) to test whether dronabinol (a synthetic Cannabis/marijuana derivative) slows progression in people with primary-progressive or secondary-progressive MS.  The results of the trial, published in 2013 in Lancet Neurology showed that dronabinoal was unable to demonstrate a positive effect on disease progression.

http://www.nationalmssociety.org/Treating-MS/Complementary-Alternative-Medicines/Marijuana

That marijuana provides symptomatic-relief, (antispastic), could give users a false-impression that is effecting MS progression.

[smart]

Before discussing the subject any further, can you you provide any actual hard evidence that MS sufferers who use cannabis have slower progression of the disease ?. 

For some reasons I cannot post links...

However, research indicates that the retinoid X receptor gamma interaction with PPAR (cannabinoid agonist) has been implicated as a positive CNS regulator of remyelination. Thus it is believed endocannabinoids can promote endogenous remyelination in MS pathophysiology.