Microbiologists at Cornell University in New York have just discovered that a toxin produced by strains of Clostridium perfringens, a bacterium that can cause food poisoning, could be the cause of some cases of multiple sclerosis . This disease which affects the central nervous system and which affects approximately one in 1000 people in France, occurs in certain particularly sensitive people. Under the influence of certain genes, certain environmental or immunological factors would cause a deregulation of the immune system. And according to researchers at Cornell University in New York, the toxin dubbed “Epsilon toxin” could be one of those triggers, because it attacks the myelin of the brain, causing outbreaks of multiple sclerosis.
For Jennifer Linden, one of the microbiologists who worked on the subject, this discovery supports previous work. To test this hypothesis, she studied the behavior of the toxin in mice by focusing on the cells targeted by this toxin. This is how she realized that brain cells were her prime target. His team then tested a number of foods and found that about 3% of the foods carried the Epsilon toxin.
Researchers will now focus on finding a way to block the toxin when it is present in the body in order to stop the progression of multiple sclerosis or simply prevent the development of the disease.
