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SCIENTISTS have succeeded in repairing the nerve damage that causes multiple sclerosis.

The breakthrough, made in experiments with laboratory mice, raises the prospect of new treatments that could prevent serious disability caused by the auto-immune disease.

Patient trials of the therapy are planned following further animal studies.

Multiple sclerosis is caused by “friendly fire” from the body’s immune system, which destroys myelin, the fatty insulation around nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord.

The damage disrupts nerve messages, leading to mild or severe symptoms ranging from blurred vision and numbness to complete paralysis. Around 85,000 people in the UK have the condition, including 10,500 in Scotland - the country with the highest proportion of sufferers in the world.

Although the symptoms can to some extent be managed, there is currently no cure for MS.

Treatment involves calming down the immune system and reducing damaging inflammation, but nothing yet exists that can restore lost myelin. Finding a way to repair damaged myelin is the “Holy Grail” of MS research.

Scientists from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, yesterday said they had used a human antibody to regrow myelin in mice with progressive multiple sclerosis.

The scientists, who genetically engineered the protein, are cautiously optimistic about their early results, describing them as “very promising”.

Dr Arthur Warrington, presenting details at the annual meeting of the American Neurological Association in Washington DC, said: “The findings could eventually lead to new treatments that could limit permanent disability.”