According to The Jerusalem Post, a Israeli team of neurologists discovered signs of MS that appear up to nine years before the onset

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an incredibly damaging disorder, with an average age of onset ranging from the mid-twenties to the mid-thirties. And we have no real cure for it. Teva’s Copaxone is able to slow down the progress of the disease, but it does not halt it in its track. And worst of all, we are still not sure of the cause, and who stands a higher chance of contracting the disorder.

Or do we?

According to the Jerusalem Post, “For the first time in the world, Israeli neurologists have identified early genetic markers of multiple sclerosis that appear up to nine years before healthy young adults develop symptoms of the disease.”

Now, this is quite interesting. As told to The Jerusalem Post reporter, the researchers took blood samples from IDF soldiers, and did routine check-ups on their health for nine years. The blood was compared to that of 31 people with MS, and certain genetic markers were found to coincide with the chance to develop MS in the future.

So what does that give us? Currently, not much. We might be able to foretell if someone is going to develop MS in the next couple of years, but I don’t think Copaxone was ever shown to stop MS before it even began – at least in human beings. The importance of this discovery, to me, is in two major points:

1. It could help us understand better the source of MS, and perhaps discover a vaccine of a sort.
2. It is a symbol of the better diagnostic tools that are being developed daily. In the next decade, we can expect more and more markers like this one to be found. MS is only the beginning. I am quite anxious to see how the insurance companies will handle the abundance of statistical knowledge about their customers’ future health. Insurance, after all, has always been based on gambling. What will happen when the insurance company knows exactly which cards the other player holds? The answers will be found in the future.

The Jerusalem Post story

The scientific paper in Neurobiology of Disease