An oft-pathogenic bacteria that’s associated with multiple sclerosis (MS) may be pulling the trigger for the disease by way of a toxin it produces, according to researchers at Rockefeller University.
The researchers found patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) have 1,000 times the amount of Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) in their gut microbiomes. The microbiome is the community of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microorganisms that live mostly symbiotically with humans.
MS is a neurological autoimmune disease that affects many of the body’s systems. Nearly one million Americans have MS. In patients with MS, the immune system attacks myelin, the coating insulating nerve fibers. Damaged myelin affects the nerve signals traveling to and from the brain and spinal cord.
Scientists have long believed that a microbial infection could be the sort of environmental trigger causing MS. A 2017 study showed that a transfer of the gut microbiota of MS patients to mice caused MS in the mice.
Attempting to isolate which microbe could be causing the disease to develop, Dr. Kareem Rashid Rumah, co-author of the study and a physician-scientist in Vincent Fischetti’s lab at Rockefeller, noted a discovery made in a 1986 study that people living in places with high sheep populations—Scotland and New Zealand in particular—are more likely to suffer from MS.
“The bacteria C. perfringens, often found in sheep, makes over 20 different toxins,” he said in a recent university news release. “Its epsilon toxin has been known to break down the blood-brain barrier and cause MS-like symptoms in sheep.”
Epsilon is one of six major toxins produced by C. perfringens and is believed to increase intestinal permeability and cause damage as far away as the central nervous system, heart, and lungs.
“If this is the environmental trigger for MS, we can now start talking about a vaccine, monoclonal antibodies, or some other therapy,” Dr. Rumah stated. Critics of honing in on one bacteria as causal for MS, rather than taking into consideration the makeup of the whole microbiome, say there are more natural ways to mute the effects of this toxic bacterium by leveraging the good bacteria in the microbial community.
A Closer Look at Epsilon
The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, looked at 62 participants and compared stool samples of MS patients to healthy controls. Gut dysbiosis, or an unhealthy balance of microbes, is a common biomarker in MS.
Rather than strictly looking for C. perfringens, which most people harbor in their gut microbiome, the analysis also honed in on epsilon by categorizing epsilon toxin-producing strains of C. perfringens. Sixty-one percent of the MS patients had epsilon toxin-producing C. perfringens in their guts compared to 13 percent of the controls.
Researchers then induced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis on mice using epsilon toxin-producing strains of C. perfringens. They reported observing demyelination in various parts of the brain in a matter similar to the lesion patterns observed in MS.
“We need to move from the gut and show that epsilon toxin is in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid of MS patients in the active phase of the disease,” Dr. Rumah said. “If we can detect the toxin in the blood, then we’d have irrefutable evidence that this is at play in MS.”
Ultimate proof of the hypothesis would be to either neutralize epsilon or eliminate C. perfringens in human patients to halt the disease, according to the Rockefeller research team.
C. perfringens Is Everywhere
It’s quite likely, though, that MS is occasionally being halted already—even in genetically at-risk humans—in those with healthy gut microbiomes and immune systems.
That’s because C. perfringens is everywhere in the environment. While the study authors note the correlation between MS and sheep farms, C. perfringens is a common food-borne pathogen. The study noted it can also be found in pets, farm runoff, sewage, marine sediment, soil, and in the intestines of all kinds of fish, birds, and mammals.
The bacteria is a spore-forming anaerobe that is persistent “due to its resistance to heat, chemicals, radiation, and pressure.” It colonizes in the small intestine, but whether it becomes virulent in humans is believed to be dependent on the health of the host, including prior antibiotic use.
The study notes that disease in ruminants follows the consumption of large quantities of fermentable carbohydrates. Bacteria then enter the environment through feces and can survive several months in soil.
Farm animals are universally recommended to be vaccinated against C. perfringens. Paul Buch, a farm-to-table farmer, told The Epoch Times inoculation doesn’t offer foolproof protection. It wouldn’t even be necessary, he said, if animals weren’t being fed cheap grain—rather than allowed to forage or given hay—a practice that’s become common to speed up weaning and therefore, breeding cycles.
“They’re messing with mother nature and pushing to get more profitability, and that’s kind of driving it,” Mr. Buch said. “But if you feed them dryer hay, not so rich grass, low grain, they have a very low risk of getting C. perfringens.”
What’s Triggering C. perfringens?
The stress of premature weaning may also make animals more vulnerable, Mr. Buch said. And those same two factors—diet and stress—may be partially responsible for infections in people, too, especially those already at risk of MS.
Dr. Amy Beard, a medical doctor and functional practitioner, described it as a collision between someone who has a dysfunctional immune system and an opportunistic pathogen.
She told The Epoch Times that a neurologist many years ago told her she probably had MS. It was about the time she had part of her colon surgically removed due to digestive problems. Her failing health was a wake-up call to clean up her gut health, which she said reversed her gut and brain symptoms.
Nurturing the gut microbial community so that C. perfringens and other pathogens cannot cause problems is possible with a holistic approach, she said. That includes a diet of real food, reducing toxins, exercising, managing stress, and lowering toxin exposure.
A recent clinical trial found patients with MS who took Saccharomyces boulardii probiotic for four months had fewer symptoms. A review published in February 2023 said preventing an imbalance of gut bacteria with better eating habits and probiotics could improve the course of the disease. And Dr. Rumah’s study notes that MS ebbs and flows in a way that suggests repeated environmental factors trigger episodes of disease.
“You want optimal gut health. You want to be doing everything you can to make the beneficial commensal bacteria—that we know exist in healthy humans—thrive,” Dr. Beard said. “There are so many things that affect your gut health, and what’s good for gut health is good for brain health.”