A lactic acid bacteria developed by a group of Korean researchers was found to be effective in curbing *hypersensitivity inflammatory response, raising expectations that it may be used to make adjurvants to treat autoimmune disorders of the nervous system, which also causes hypersensitivity inflammatory responses such as multiple sclerosis* and myasthenia gravis.*

(*inflammatory response: immune reaction triggered by immunocytes fighting off germs, virus, etc. and usually accompanied by angiectasis, edema, pain and heat. If not properly controlled, hypersensitivity inflammatory response may lead to in various diseases.)

(*multiple sclerosis: autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system. Immune reaction is triggered against protein surrounding nerves, thus undermining the function of the central nervous system and causing the waste-down paralysis.)

(*myasthenia gravis: autoimmune disorder in nerve-muscle joint areas. Immune reaction is triggered against acetylcholine acceptor protein, leading to serious myasthenia.)

This research was carried out jointly between a research team led by Professor Sin-Hyeog Im at School of Life Sciences of Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST ‧ President ‧ Young Joon Kim) sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (Minister ‧ Lee Ju Ho) and National Research Foundation of Korea (President ‧ Lee Seung Jong) as part of the Senior Researchers Support Program and Ph.D Kwon Hogeun of Harvard Medical School. Their research result was published in the latest edition of the Clinical Immunology (dated Feb. 26^th)

(Paper title: Amelioration of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis by probiotic mixture is mediated by a shift in T helper cell immune response)

This research result was introduced also on MDLinx* and drew a good deal of attention at the Keystone Symposium, the US. In the meantime, the research team was offered a suggestion from Harvard Medical School to carry out a joint clinical research on multiple sclerosis patients. In addition, the research team will conduct a joint research with Caltech in order to identify immune modulation materials originated from lactic acid.

(*MDLinx: a medical journal website which distributes the latest information on medical research to hundreds of thousands of readers in 35 countries across the world)