Scientists discovered that a compound called N-acetyl glucosamine (GlcNAc) prevented the development of diseases equivalent to MS and type 1 diabetes in tests on mice.
A team from the University of California, Irvine found GlcNAc molecules suppressed damaging autoimmune responses, New Scientist reported.
They do this by attaching to receptors on the outside of immune cells, preventing them from attacking the body's own cells and tissue, the researchers discovered.
Experiments in 2002 showed that glucosamine - which is similar to GlcNAc but less potent - worked as well as regular immunosuppressants in increasing the amount of time transplanted hearts lasted in mice.
Nick Giannoukakis, a pathologist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pennsylvania, who carried out the earlier study, said he was "astounded" by the latest results.
But he warned that further work was needed to show that glucosamine or GlcNAc could reverse symptoms in animals with autoimmune diseases as well as prevent them.
There is already some evidence to support this - in 2005 researchers revealed that glucosamine could suppress MS symptoms in mice that had recently developed the disease.
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