Russian researchers developed a simple and effective technique for diagnosis of the disease, which previously lacked a reliable and affordable diagnostic method – multiple sclerosis.

      Currently medics use a whole lot of methods for diagnosing this disease, including magnetic resonance imaging and analysis of cerebrospinal fluid. Unfortunately, all these methods could not predict with sufficient reliability, whether a patient has multiple sclerosis or not.

      A group of Russian researchers, headed by Lyudmila Frank, from the Institute of Biophysics in Krasnoyarsk, discovered that patients with multiple sclerosis produce autoimmune antibodies, like antibodies to myelin-associated proteins. Presence of such antibodies is now considered to be a characteristic symptom of multiple sclerosis.

      Scientists have constructed special molecules, containing a fluorescent protein called obelin. When this protein meets an antibody, specific for multiple sclerosis, it becomes active and emits a characteristic quantum of light, which can be detected, and serves as a symptom of multiple sclerosis.