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By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News
Salt on bread Salt is in many foods, such as bread.
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The amount of salt in our diet could be involved in driving our own immune
systems to rebel against us, leading to diseases such as multiple sclerosis,
early laboratory findings suggest.
Several teams of scientists have simultaneously published data in the journal
Nature suggesting a link.
Salt may activate a part of the immune system that can target the body.
Experts said the findings were very interesting and plausible, but were not a
cure for people with MS.
The body's defence against infection can go horrible awry, turning on the body
and leading to autoimmune diseases including Type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid
arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
Genetics is thought to increase the risk of such diseases, but the world around
us also has a major impact. One of the leading theories behind multiple
sclerosis is a viral infection, but smoking and a lack of vitamin D may make
the condition more likely.
Now researchers believe they have the first evidence that the amount of salt in
our diet may also be contributing.
Gene link
Teams of researchers at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Broad
Institute of MIT and Harvard were investigating a part of the immune system
that has been implicated in autoimmune diseases.
Start Quote
We were all really quite surprised to see how changes in dietary salt could
have such a profound effect
Prof David Hafler Yale University
They wanted to know how T-helper 17 cells were produced.
A sophisticated analysis of the complicated chemistry needed to form a T-helper
17 cell - which involved carefully monitoring cells and reverse engineering the
changes - identified a critical gene. But the gene had been seen before.
"Its day job is to increase salt uptake in the gut," said Dr Vijay Kuchroo from
Brigham and Women's Hospital. "When we put extra salt in the culture dish it
was one of those 'Aha' moments, the cells were becoming T-helper 17 cells."
Mice fed a high-salt diet were more likely to develop a disease similar to MS
in experiments.
Meanwhile, researchers at Yale University were also investigating salt and
looking at human cells.
David Hafler, professor of immunobiology at Yale, told BBC news online: "In
mouse models of MS, those fed high-salt diets had significantly worse disease.
"We were all really quite surprised to see how changes in dietary salt could
have such a profound effect."
Advice?
There is caution about over-interpreting what is very early research. Studies
are now taking place in people with high blood pressure, also caused by high
salt intake, to see if there is a link between salt and autoimmune diseases in
people.
Start Quote
There is no prospect of a low salt diet curing MS. If you already have the
disease and go on a low salt diet the horse has already bolted
Prof Alastair Compston University of Cambridge
Dr Aviv Regev, from the Broad Institute, said: "All we can do is bring the
current state of knowledge to the public, we have absolutely no
recommendations, there's always a gap between scientific discovery and
translation to the clinic."
Prof Hafler added that a low salt-diet was, however, unlikely to cause harm.
Commenting on the findings, Prof Alastair Compston, from the University of
Cambridge, told the BBC the findings were plausible, unexpected and very
interesting.
"Like all good science it is introducing a brand new idea that nobody had
thought of."
He said that salt may have a similar effect to other factors such as smoking
and sunlight, which alter the odds of getting the disease.
However he cautioned: "There is no prospect of a low salt diet curing MS. If
you already have the disease and go on a low salt diet the horse has already
bolted."
Dr Susan Kohlhaas, head of biomedical research at the MS Society, said: "This
is a really interesting study and it's positive to see new avenues of MS
research being explored in this way.
"It's still too early, however, to draw firm conclusions on what these findings
mean for people with MS, but we look forward to seeing the results of further
research.
"In the meantime, we recommend that people follow government advice on
maintaining a healthy, balanced diet, which includes guidelines on salt
intake."