Is this really a new breakthrough ???

[Solow]

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[agate]

I'm not qualified to say whether this is a breakthrough. The media have a way of announcing "breakthroughs" pretty often. I did find the abstract for the study that is referred to in the article you've linked to though:

From Science Translational Medicine, June 5, 2013:

Antigen-Specific Tolerance by Autologous Myelin Peptide–Coupled Cells: A Phase 1 Trial in Multiple Sclerosis Andreas Lutterotti1,2, Sara Yousef1, Andreas Sputtek3, Klarissa H. Stürner1, Jan-Patrick Stellmann1, Petra Breiden1, Stefanie Reinhardt1, Christian Schulze4, Maxim Bester5, Christoph Heesen1, Sven Schippling1,6, Stephen D. Miller7,*, Mireia Sospedra1,6,* and Roland Martin1,6,*,† + Author Affiliations 1Institute for Neuroimmunology and Clinical MS Research, Center for Molecular Neurobiology, 20251 Hamburg, Germany. 2Clinical Department of Neurology, Innsbruck Medical University, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria. 3Institute of Transfusion Medicine, Center for Diagnostics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany. 4Systems Biology and Protein-Protein Interaction, Center for Molecular Neurobiology, 20251 Hamburg, Germany. 5Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany. 6Neuroimmunology and MS Research, Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zürich, 8091 Zürich, Switzerland. 7Department of Microbiology-Immunology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL 60611, USA. + Author Notes ↵* These authors contributed equally to this work. ↵†Corresponding author. E-mail: roland.martin@usz.ch Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a devastating inflammatory disease of the brain and spinal cord that is thought to result from an autoimmune attack directed against antigens in the central nervous system. The aim of this first-in-man trial was to assess the feasibility, safety, and tolerability of a tolerization regimen in MS patients that uses a single infusion of autologous peripheral blood mononuclear cells chemically coupled with seven myelin peptides (MOG1–20, MOG35–55, MBP13–32, MBP83–99, MBP111–129, MBP146–170, and PLP139–154). An open-label, single-center, dose-escalation study was performed in seven relapsing-remitting and two secondary progressive MS patients who were off-treatment for standard therapies. All patients had to show T cell reactivity against at least one of the myelin peptides used in the trial. Neurological, magnetic resonance imaging, laboratory, and immunological examinations were performed to assess the safety, tolerability, and in vivo mechanisms of action of this regimen. Administration of antigen-coupled cells was feasible, had a favorable safety profile, and was well tolerated in MS patients. Patients receiving the higher doses (>1 × 109) of peptide-coupled cells had a decrease in antigen-specific T cell responses after peptide-coupled cell therapy. In summary, this first-in-man clinical trial of autologous peptide-coupled cells in MS patients establishes the feasibility and indicates good tolerability and safety of this therapeutic approach.

If this link works, the abstract can be seen here: Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...

And for another article on this, see this thread by Gabriella:

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