Described is a method for diagnosing a person having multiple sclerosis (MS) or being at risk of developing MS, comprising the following steps: providing a sample of a body fluid or tissue from said person, said sample containing at least one of the wild type SCF-Apoptosis-Response Gene- (wt-SARG-1-) protein and nucleic acids encoding wt-SARG-1, if taken from a person not having MS or a risk of aquiring MS, detecting the presence of wt-SARG-1-protein or nucleic acids encoding wt-SARG-1 in said sample and diagnosing MS or a risk of aquiring MS, if wt-SARG-1-protein or nucleic acids encoding wt-SARG-1 are not present in said sample.