In July 2017 Oxford University researchers provided unequivocal evidence that, in the case of those with progressive M.S, fibrin(ogen) is extensively deposited in their motor cortex, where regulation of fibrinolysis appears perturbed. This severe fibrin(ogen) deposition is accompanied by significantly reduced neuronal density. The role of the primary motor cortex is to generate neural impulses that control the execution of movement. Future studies are needed to clarify the source and acknowledged neurotoxicity of fibrin(ogen), and its potential impact on clinical disability. An October 2015 study from the Gladstone Institutes shows that a single drop of blood in the brain is sufficient to activate an autoimmune response akin to multiple sclerosis (MS). This is the first demonstration that introduction of blood in the healthy brain is sufficient to cause peripheral immune cells to enter the brain, which then go on to cause brain damage. They discovered that injecting just one drop of blood into the brain set off the brain’s immune response, kick-starting a chain reaction that resulted in inflammation and myelin damage. What’s more, scientists were able to pinpoint a specific protein in the blood, the blood-clotting factor fibrinogen, as the trigger for the disease-causing process.  These findings question a long-held paradigm that myelin-specific T cells initiate inflammation in the brain through activation of microglia and brain macrophages.  Scott Zamvil, MD, PhD, a professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco and co-author on the paper said “This study demonstrates that the original paradigm may also occur in reverse. Namely, initial activation of microglia and brain macrophages may activate T cells..These findings offer a completely new way of thinking about how the immune system attacks the brain—it puts the blood in the driver’s seat of the onset and progression of disease - Read more about these developments and related topics at http://www.msnetwork.org/news.htm Peter Sullivan and Kerri Cassidy, on behalf of Multiple Sclerosis Network of Care, Australia http://www.msnetwork.org Acknowledgement. Research abstracts provided by HorizonsSCAN. Australian developed and Internationally acclaimed HorizonsSCAN is arguably one of the worlds most in depth entirely independent multiple sclerosis patient-centered research resources.