http://www.breakthroughdigest.com/medical-news/multiple-sclerosis-italia...
A non-pathogenic bacterium is capable to trigger an autoimmune disease similar to the multiple sclerosis in the mouse, the model animal which helps to explain how human diseases work. This is what a group of researchers from the Catholic University of Rome, led by Francesco Ria (Institute of General Pathology) and Giovanni Delogu (Institute of Microbiology), have explained for the first time in a recently published article on the Journal of Immunology.

Multiple sclerosis is a disease due to an inflammatory reaction provoked by the immune system. It causes the disruption of the coating of the nerve fibres in the Central Nervous System.

“We do not know what causes multiple sclerosis”, explains Francesco Ria, immunologist of the Catholic University. “We know that there exist a genetic factor and an environmental factor, but we do not yet posses a satisfactory theory which can explain how exactly this environmental factor works”.