Are There General Features of How Immune Responses Are Regulated That Can Provide Clues to How Remitting/Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis May Be Treated?

Abstract

Most basic studies directed at how immune responses are regulated employ chemically “simple antigens”, usually purified proteins. The target antigens in many clinical situations, such as in autoimmunity, infectious diseases and cancer, are chemically “complex”, consisting of several distinct molecules, and they often are part of a replicating entity. We examine here the relationships between how immune responses to complex and simple antigens are regulated. This examination provides a context for considering how immune responses are regulated in those clinical situations involving complex antigens. I have proposed and discuss here a mechanism by which immune responses to the envisaged complex target antigen in remitting/relapsing multiple sclerosis go back and forth between inflammatory and non-inflammatory modes, potentially accounting for the course of this disease. This proposal makes predictions that can be tested by non-invasive means. It also leads to a suggestion for simple, non-invasive treatment.