Does Cow Milk Exacerbate Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis? Recent Study Discovers Mechanisms at Play

For several decades, patients diagnosed with multiple sclerosis have suggested that the consumption of dairy products exacerbates their symptoms. A recent study published by researchers from the University of Bonn and Erlangen-Nuremberg has just been able to demonstrate how milk triggers MS symptoms, specifically a protein found in cow milk that triggers immune cells that are known to damage neurons in MS.

Investigating How Milk Triggers MS Symptoms

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Stefanie Kurten, a researcher from the Institute of Anatomy at the University Hospital Bonn that has been involved in the study since 2018, explains that time and time again, patients diagnosed with MS have voiced out how worse their symptoms become after consuming cottage cheese, milk, or yogurt. This is why the team decided to investigate how milk and other milk-based products trigger MS symptoms, reports NewAtlas.

The first step for researchers was to isolate particular constituents of milk that could enhance MS symptoms. Throughout various mouse experiments, the team discovered that the main culprit behind the phenomenon was casein. However, the observation merely affirmed the correlation between milk consumption and MS. Researchers wanted to verify the mechanisms at play and discover how the milk protein triggers MS-related neuronal damage.

Ritika Chunder, the co-author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow, explains that the team's hypothesis was that casein, the milk protein, triggers a misdirected immune response. This means that the protein resembles the same antigens that lead the body's immune cells to incorrectly target brain cells. Wherein the body's natural defenses attack the casein, however, in the process, they also destroy vital proteins involved in myelin formation, according to an article by the University of Bonn.

Chunder adds that the team compared the milk protein casein with various other molecules vital in the production of myelin. In this process, the team observed the MAg protein. According to Chunder, the MAG protein resembles casein in some ways, so much so that researchers believe that antibodies to casein were also observed to be active against MAG in lab animal experiments.

Lastly, researchers had to establish the newly observed casein-triggered autoimmune response in humans. Researchers looked at how the casein antibodies behaved in samples of human brain tissues to investigate the phenomenon.

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Casein-Triggered Autoimmune Response: The Link Between Milk and Worsened MS Symptoms

The experiments verified the researcher's hypothesis; the casein antibodies were aggregating in the brain cells responsible for the production of myelin. Additionally, the team found immune B cells taken from patients with MS to be particularly sensitive to casein. The study published in the journal PNAS, titled "antibody cross-reactivity between casein and myelin-associated glycoprotein results in central nervous system demyelination with implications for the immunopathology of multiple sclerosis," concludes the apparent relationship between milk and MS symptoms due to the casein protein triggering an influx of immune antibodies. These immune cells also mistakenly attack healthy brain cells due to the presence of the MAG protein and its resemblance to casein.