Most people with multiple sclerosis (MS) are women (74%), while men comprise only 24% of MS patients. Women are three times more likely to develop multiple sclerosis, and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society states that more women are developing the condition as time passes. Although we still haven’t figured out what exactly causes MS, researchers posit that factors such as stress, smoking, hormones such as estrogen, and inflammation may increase the risk of developing multiple sclerosis.
Many women with the condition have noticed that their symptoms decrease when they are pregnant, with some reporting a significant reduction in symptoms during their pregnancy. This state of reduced symptoms can last throughout the pregnancy, but most women will experience a resurgence in their MS symptoms after they give birth.
Researchers may have finally discovered the underlying mechanisms that cause a decline in MS symptoms in women during pregnancy. Recent research shows that the reduction in symptoms may be due to pregnancy’s effect on the immune system. Since this system is designed to fight foreign substances, the body makes the immune system more tolerant during pregnancy so it doesn’t attack the genetic material from the father.
Given that multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune condition that is characterized by the immune system attacking healthy host tissue and causing nerve damage over the long-term, dampening the immune system seems to reduce the condition’s effects, at least during pregnancy. MS symptoms can decrease by as much as 70% during pregnancy, and researchers have determined that other autoimmune conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, can also become less severe during pregnancy.
Researchers wanted to understand the mechanisms that allowed pregnancy to dampen the symptoms of autoimmunity to inform current and future efforts to develop treatments for autoimmune conditions such as multiple sclerosis. They were especially interested in T cells, a class of immune cells that are critical in maintaining the body’s immunity and that also play a role in the development of MS.
The team compared blood samples from 7 healthy women and 11 women with multiple sclerosis that were taken before, during and after their pregnancies. Researchers determined the genes that T-cells used at various stages of pregnancy and analyzed the changes that governed how these genes switched on and off.
Sandra Gekkberg, a researcher and assistant professor at the Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences at Linköping University, said the scientists were shocked to discover minimal differences in the immune system of healthy pregnant women and pregnant women with multiple sclerosis. She explained that pregnancy seems to affect “networks of interacting genes” that reduce symptom severity and relapse frequency, especially during the last trimester when women see the highest reduction in symptoms.
However, the changes that affect the network of genes steadily reverse toward the end of the pregnancy, and symptom frequency and severity return to prepregnancy levels soon after birth. Companies such as BiondVax Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (NASDAQ: BVXV) are focusing on developing drugs to help these women gain relief from their symptoms or even reverse the course of the autoimmune condition.
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