Protein in the brain? Help

[ffjosh]

I can't find the article now but I thought I read something about a protein of some sort making its way into a MS persons brain. It was a possible cause of MS.

Im also reading that there finding a protein in NFL players that could be causing CTE.

Interesting?

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/22/health...ml?hpt=hp_bn12

[HellsBells1]

T-Cells

Not sure, but perhaps you are thinking about T-Cells which are a type of white blood cell (which is a protein) and they are involved in cell-mediated immunity.

It has been discovered that T-Cells are getting into the brain and are involved in the diseases auto-immune attack on the myelin. They are not supposed to cross the blood-brain barrier, but for some reason, they do in MS.

[MSer102]

I saw the article about protein in the brain but it was found in other brain diseases besides MS. And I think the article said that the scientists didn't know if the protein was the cause of the diseases or the result of the diseases.

The story about the NFL players doesn't say that the protein could be the cause of CTE. CTE means chronic traumatic encephalopathy. CTE is caused by trauma and the protein is found after the trauma. The story is saying that they found a way to find the protein in living people by using a brain scan. Before it could only be found by testing the brain after the person died. Since they can find the protein while the person is still alive they can get clues about how bad the brain damage is before the person develops bad symptoms. Kind of like using an MRI to look at brain lesions in MS. Before MRIs MS lesions could only be found by a brain biopsy or looking at the brain after a person died.