This article is the first of a series which proposes a thesis and hypothesis on the cause of Multiple Sclerosis and potential avenues of therapy.  It has been written as a contribution to the public domain to be critiqued, compared and peer reviewed by people who have an interest in multiple sclerosis, medicine, the sciences and thinking in general. It is an experiment in open online digital peer review and discussion.  Too few people are being included in the communities which get to make meaning, and too great a number are excluded from the conventions which help us to collectively work towards greater understandings.
This is, of course, a reference to science and scientific method.  Never before in history has so much information been available to so many people.  Niether has there ever been a period with so many having access to the stuffs and materials of science.  The endeavour of humanity is held back when a relatively small group of select people decide for all the world that they are the sole paladins of knowledge and what gets included in discussions about matters which concern us all.  This has become the danger as society opens its debates only to those who have had the good fortune to be born in the right place and the right time.  True knowledge is of a deeper character, fortunately, and is available to all.

We can draw our attentions to various thinkers who have helped clarify how we work towards understanding of how we know what we know.  The philosophy of science, and philosophy in general, helps us question the illusions which prevail and wrest from them energies which we should be directing towards some more constructive focus.  Thinkers like Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn help keep alive a healthy scepticism which leads us to open enquiry, and ultimately more open societies.  I write this as a preamble to a thesis presented in good faith, to examine and and lay down a hypothesis on why Multiple Sclerosis comes about and – on this basis – what a viable treatment is.

Nobody should be kept from trying to make such contributions; and in fact, my belief is that everyone should be encouraged to attempt to build such understandings so to enter into the public domain thus engaging in rational analysis of the arguments laid forth.  It is a single impoverishment to make a dismissal starting on the absence of status, and anyone criticising the work that follows on this basis is simply worshiping an idol of the mind.  Instead, I believe it should be celebrated that such structured arguments are being made and put forth from unexpected quarters as it is a stimulus to the very conversation which is the making of all futures.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA.. It is put directly into the public domain as it is deliberately thought out to become what is legally known as ‘Prior Art’; this means that it has become common knowledge and is the equal entitlement of every human being.  It equally means that no monopoly rights can be sought by myself or any other person seeking to profit from creating some sort of patent which benefits from the ill luck of others.  This is an intellectual exercise, and should any fruit come of it, that fruit belongs to everyone in equal proportions.

Once common property, this knowledge, hypothesis and theory becomes an idea which must be assessed before it can be understood whether it represents some truth, or some misapprehension of the facts.  There is a powerful propensity for the human personality to convince itself that it is correct in as many things as possible. This is why the tradition of peer review has been treasured as a safe guard to faulty thinking.  I like the thoughts of Michael Ventris as someone who was passionate about trying to avoid kidding himself and others; he repeatedly questioned himself whether what the conclusions of what he was working on was ‘fantasy, coincidence, or circular reasoning’…. Eventually he was to contribute the final cracking of the decipherment of linear B, an ancient and lost language.

This work is open for discussion and I invite critique via email.  Any structured and rational criticisms which will be openly published alongside this work, on this website.as a part of the Ragged University project.  Please get involved and feedback your thoughts, questions, answers, and on the ideas contained in the presentation. The following is an outline of what will be covered in the series of posts, with an attempt at all times to make available the original sources plus curricular learning materials for the sake of example:

 

Whole Thesis Typeset For Print

Contents

Chapter One: Description

• Description
• Incidence
• Cause
• Genetics
• Categorisation

 

Chapter Two: Diagnosis

• Technical Diagnosis
• Evoked Potential Studies
• Tests of Bladder Function
• CSF Examination
• Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• Differential Diagnosis
• Biomarkers
• Prognosis

Chapter Three: Treatments

• Treament of Multiple Sclerosis
• Pharmaceutical Therapies
• Interferon
• Definitive Trials in Multiple Sclerosis
• Mechanism of Action
• Neutralising Antibodies
• Glatiramer Acetate
• Non Pharmacological Therapies
• Hyperbaric Oxygen
• Nutritional Therapies
• Malabsorption
• Antioxidants
• Fatty Acids
• Vitamin B12
• Vitamin D
• Steroids

 

Chapter Four: Manifestation

• Clinical Manifestation
• Sensory Manifestations
• Symptoms
• Abnormalities of Reflex
• Optic Neuritis
• Psychology

 

Chapter Five: Histology

• The Nervous System
• The Neuron
• Transmission of the Nervous Impulse
• Composition of Nervous: Lipids
• Composition of Nervous: Proteins
• Composition of Nervous: Electrolytes
• Composition of Nervous: Derivatives of Sphingosine
• Composition of Nervous: Sphingolipids
• Composition of Nervous: Sphingomyelins
• Composition of Nervous: The Phosphatides
• Composition of Nervous: Carbohydrates
• Composition of Nervous: Glycolipids
• Composition of Nervous: Glycolipids of the Central Nervous System
• Composition of Nervous: Cerebrosides and Sulfatides
• Composition of Nervous: Gangliosides
• Composition of Nervous: Gala and Hemato Series Gangliosides
• Composition of Nervous: Lacto and Globo Series Gangliosides
• Composition of Nervous: Gangliosides in Whole Nerve Tissues
• Composition of Nervous: Gangliosides in Brain Cells

 

Chapter Six: Myelin

• Glial Cells
• Oligodendrocyte
• Myelin
• Immature Myelin
• Myelin Basic Protein
• Acylation of Central Nervous system Proteins
• Proteolipid Protein
• Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein
• Myelin Associated Glycoprotein

 

Chapter Seven: Pathology

• Pathology Overview
• Models of Multiple Sclerosis
• Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis
• Autoimmune Disease
• Epitope Spreading
• Adhesion Molecules
• Immunoglobulins
• Cytokines
• Osteopontin
• Inflammation
• Oxidative Stress
• Isoprostanes
• Glutathione
• Uric Acid
• Nitric Oxide
• Glutamate
• N-Acetylaspartate

 

Chapter Eight: Demyelination

• Demyelination
• Remyelination
• Phosphoinositol Phospholipase
• Protein Kinase C
• Lesions
• Apoptosis
• Matrix Metalloproteinases
• Channelopathy
• Tau Protein
• Neurofilaments

 

Chapter Nine: Glutamine Metabolism

• Glutamine Metabolism
• Glutamine Chemistry
• Glutamine in the Tissues
• Glutamine and the Nervous System
• Glutamine and the Intestines
• Glutamine and Skeletal Muscle
• Hepatic Glutamine Metabolism
• Glutamine Synthetase
• Glutamine Synthetase in the Central Nervous System
• Glutamine Synthetase in the Liver
• Sulfoximine Inhibition of Glutamine Synthetase
• Glutaminases and Amidotransferases
• Ammonia and Glutamate Metabolism
• Glutamate Metabolism
• Glutamate Dehydrogenase
• Nucleotides and Glutamine Metabolism
• Myelin Basic Protein Formation and Glutamine
• Glutamine and Arginine Synthesis

 

Conclusion

• Hypothesis

Bibliography