Study points to a new promising therapy against toxic blood leaks in the brain
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — In the nearly 1 million Americans living with multiple sclerosis, the fatty substance that insulates the nerves of the central nervous system—called myelin—is damaged. This slows the transmission of signals from their brain to the rest of their body, which causes movement difficulties, vision problems, and cognitive changes.
Clinical trials are currently testing drugs that were shown in lab-based studies to stimulate the production of new myelin. However, in the brains of patients with multiple sclerosis, cells are surrounded by toxic elements from the blood and the immune system that inhibit the repair of damaged myelin, so it remains unclear whether the drugs can be effective in humans.
A new study by scientists at Gladstone Institutes led by Senior Investigator Katerina Akassoglou, PhD, shows that many of the drugs currently in trials may not be sufficient to promote repair within these cells’ toxic environment and identifies a different treatment option that could improve the repair of myelin. The study, performed in collaboration with UC San Diego and the University of Vienna, Austria, is published in the journal Brain.
“We found a new line of drugs that could potentially be used to stimulate myelin repair even in the presence of toxic blood leaks in the brain,” explains Akassoglou, who is also the director of the Center for Neurovascular Brain Immunology at Gladstone and a professor of neurology at UC San Francisco (UCSF).
Blood Leaks in the Brain Prevent Repair
Normally, in an attempt to restore insulation to damaged nerves, specialized repair cells in the brain can transform into cells called oligodendrocytes, which produce new myelin. Click to continue reading
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