The Great NetXperiment!

In a novel experiment, moderate doses of carbon monoxide protected against the symptoms of multiple sclerosis in mice.

Researchers believe that the poisonous gas prevents the development of symptoms, such as paralysis, by stopping harmful molecules called free radicals from forming in the nervous symptom.

Miguel Soares at the Gulbenkian Science Institute in Oeiras, Portugal, and colleagues injected the animals with a protein mixture known to cause experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS).

Ten days later some of the mice were placed in a chamber where they breathed carbon monoxide (CO) at a concentration of about 500 parts per million for 20 days. Soares notes that while the mice functioned normally at this level of CO exposure, a similar concentration of the gas can cause headaches and fainting in humans.

At the end of the trial, the mice that had breathed CO showed much greater mobility than their control counterparts. While the experimental mice had limp tails, the control mice suffered complete hind limb paralysis.

More here

Carbon monoxide may protect against MS symptoms - health - 26 January 2007 - New Scientist Tech

I am glad that at the end of this article they point out that YOU SHOULD NOT INHALE CARBON MONOXIDE. It is poison and will kill you.

But still, the science is interesting.