Caffeine has been found to protect mice from a disease similar to Multiple Sclerosis (MS), according to a new study. As if we needed another excuse to drink coffee.

MS is disorder of the central nervous system marked by weakness, numbness, a loss of muscle coordination, and problems with vision, speech and bladder control. Believed to be an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks nerves in the brain and spinal cord, MS affects approximately 400,000 Americans and 2.5 million people worldwide.

The research appears in the early online edition of the June 30, 2008 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In the study, done in collaboration with Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Cornell University and Finland's University of Turku, researchers followed the progress of mice that normally developed an MS-like condition. The scientists discovered that when the rodents consumed the equivalent of six to eight cups of coffee a day, they did not develop the condition. The finding could lead to new ways to prevent and treat MS, said Thompson.

According to study co-author Linda Thompson, Ph.D., the caffeine stopped adenosine (one of the four building blocks in DNA) from binding to an adenosine receptor in mice. Adenosine is a common molecule in the human body and plays a vital part in the biochemical processes of sleep, suppression of arousal and energy transfer.

When adenosine could not bind to the receptor, this prevented certain T cells—white blood cells that play a central role in immune responses—from reaching the central nervous system and triggering the cascade of events that lead to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, or EAE, the animal model for the human disease MS.

"This is an exciting and unexpected finding, and I think it could be important for the study of MS and other diseases," said Thompson, who holds the Putnam City Schools Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research at OMRF. In particular, she said, the research holds potential for lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases—conditions in which the body uses the weapons of its immune system against itself.

While the results are heartening, Thompson said there is much more work to be done for the prevention of multiple sclerosis in humans. "A mouse is not a human being, so we can't be sure caffeine will have the same effect on people prone to develop MS without much more testing."

A retrospective study of people with MS to track their caffeine intake and the effects on the disease could be an important next step in the research process, said Thompson. "If you found a correlation between caffeine intake and reduced MS symptoms, that would point to further studies in humans."

The National Institutes of Health funded the study, which was co-authored by Margaret Bynoe, Jeffrey H. Mills, Cynthia Mueller and Adam Waickman of Cornell University and Sirpa Jalkanen, Jussi Niemela Laura Airas of the University of Turku.