By Brad Lee Science in the News

Topic/Source My Article Topic is on a Drug that can treat not only minor forms of MS, but the Primary form of MS. This Article can be found in Discover Magazine January/February 2018.

Summary Pg.1 Over 400,000 Americans are diagnosed with MS (multiple sclerosis), which is a disease that disrupts the brains neural signals to the body.

Summary Pg.2 In March, the Food and Drug Administration approved the Drug Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) to treat not only the minor forms of MS but also the Primary-Progressive form of MS.

Summary Pg.3 MS (Multiple Sclerosis) causes immune system cells to attack and strip away myelin, the fatty protective sheath that insulates nerve cells. This causes interference with the nerve signals, causing muscle weakness, blurry vision, bowel and bladder problems and foggy thinking.

Summary Pg.4 This Drug maybe the next level of MS treatment, whereas Traditional MS medications go for your immune system’s T-cells, this drug focuses on destroying the B-cells. Steven Hauser, a neurologist at the University of California, found out that B-cells play a critical role in the disease.

Reaction I feel this article shows that we’ve advanced when it comes to medical side of things. Before this, we had no real way of treating this disease. because of this discovery we can prevent this disease from happening. This is only one example of what we are capable of, soon, there will be no such thing as a life-threatening disease that could hit us and wipe us out to extinction.

World impact Now on a global scale, this discovery is minor compared to the other cures we’ve found. Not saying this discovery should go unnoticed, just the fact that there are so many other life threatening diseases we should be worrying about. For example, a cure to cancer, or cure to Ebola. These are what people are more concerned with, these diseases are either life threatening or have no significant cure at the moment.