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Summary Scientists had doubled the haul of genes linked with MS, a disease of the nervous system.
Multiple Sclerosis (MS), which affects around one person in every thousand, is presumed to have a mix of environmental as well as inherited causes. The immune system attacks myelin, the protective fatty sheath that swathes the nerve fibres.As a result, nerve signals get lost, delayed or disrupted, causing problems in coordination, balance, speech and vision, and the problems worsen as the disease progresses. Publishing in the British journal Nature, an international consortium of researchers identified 29 genes whose variants were strongly associated with MS, plus five other genes also suspected to play a role.The tally adds to 23 genetic variants known to have a part in this complex disease. Many of the newly-identified genes are important in the immune system, either controlling interleukins messenger chemicals that facilitate interactions between immune defences or T-cells, which attack intruders.
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