Bucky cures MS?

OK, I'm exaggerating but not by much.

Judy Siegel-Itzkovich's article, "Buckyballs may score a goal against MS," in today's Jerusalem Post, explains:

Fullerenes - molecules of pure carbon named after architect Buckminster Fuller and the spherical geodesic domes he invented - are being exploited by Tel Aviv University and Harvard Medical School researchers for the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis.

In partnership with a group including Prof. Howard Weiner from Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Michael Gozin from TAU's school of chemistry is attempting to create the next-generation MS drug based on a delivery platform of fullerenes (also known as buckyballs). They believe these tiny structures can function as "invigorating antioxidants" to keep neurons in the brain alive.

In MS, which usually attacks by the age of 40, the immune system mistakenly considers the myelin sheath around nerves as a "stranger" and attacks it, causing weakness, paralysis and lack of function. There are an estimated 350,000 Americans with MS and a few thousand Israelis with the disease. The researchers believe that fullerenes (and related carbon nanotubes) can be used in sensors and electronic applications for making much smaller and faster processors.

There's something wonderful in the idea that Bucky, "the planet's friendly genius," as he was known--and who, along with his ancestor, Margaret Fuller), has been such an inspiration to me, with MS--could possibly become the origin of its cure.

At risk of reproducing too much of this article here, I've got to drop in one more quote:

"I wanted to target with antioxidants specific receptors in the brain that are involved in the disease progress, and thus stall the deterioration of motor function in MS sufferers," Gozin says.

"We've created a molecule based on the C60 fullerene, a soccer-ball-shape with great biomedical potential," says Gozin.

This is big news, folks, because it represents a different approach to interrupting MS's progression. Antioxidants. Just what the nervous system wants.

(One last thing: remember the founding of the Fullerenes last May 23?)

--Alert to this article sent by my cousin, Alan Blank. Thanks!