Glutamate glut linked to multiple sclerosis
By Nathan Seppa
Picture a crime scene at which a police officer is the criminal, indiscriminately killing bystanders who can’t flee. Then, the rash officer calls in reinforcements, who not only shoot at passersby but poison some of them.
The berserk police are errant immune cells and their innocent victims are sheaths of a substance called myelin that surrounds axons—the impulse-carrying tendrils extending from neurons, or nerve cells. Damaging myelin sheaths kills axons, resulting in the numbness, weakness, slurred speech, and paralysis of multiple sclerosis.