Caffeine may help prevent multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune disease affecting about 400,000 people in the U.S., according to a new animal study by researchers at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In the study, a daily dose of caffeine, equivalent to the amount in six to eight cups of coffee, prevented mice from developing a condition similar to human MS. Lead researcher Linda Thompson explains caffeine prevents adenosine, one of the four building blocks of DNA, from binding to the adenosine receptor, a maneuver that is necessary for T-cells to reach the central nervous system and cause the animal version of MS.
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