Around 2.5 million people are affected by the autoimmune disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS), the commonest central nervous system disease among young adults. There are around 12,500 MS sufferers in Austria and 400 new cases every year. There is currently no cure for MS but, with appropriate treatment, it is possible to delay the typical progression of the disease. In collaboration with national and international groups in Japan, Germany and Switzerland, researchers from MedUni Vienna, led by Wilfried Ellmeier from MedUni Vienna’s Institute of Immunology, have now discovered in an animal model that the family of histone deacetylases (HDACs) plays a major role in the development of this type of autoimmune disease.
