The Centre for Brain Research at the MedUni Vienna is regarded as a world leader in researching the mechanisms involved with multiple sclerosis (MS). Now, in a paper published in the highly respected journal Lancet Neurology, an international team of researchers from Edinburgh, Cleveland and Vienna, under the leadership of Hans Lassmann, Head of the Department of Neuroimmunology at the MedUni Vienna, has for the first time documented the pathological progress of the disease from its early to late stage and also shown that inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes have a role to play. This raises the possibility of new treatment options.
Until now, there have been two approaches to categorising the condition: the first approach regards MS as a disease of the nervous system that is inflammatory throughout, with the inflammation also being responsible for the subsequent neurodegenerative damage. The second approach postulates that the disease ultimately progresses from an inflammatory condition into a neurodegenerative one. In their current paper however, the team of researchers has demonstrated that multiple sclerosis is comprised of both factors – and that the inflammatory process acts as a “driving force” from the onset right to the end, and that neurodegenerative processes also occur in the so-called progressive, late phase that damage the brain.
Says Lassmann: “The inflammatory process, which can be treated effectively in the early stages, becomes less pronounced with age. However the neurodegenerative damage increases. This also explains why drugs that initially work well later lose their effectiveness.”
In the later stages of the condition, “amplification mechanisms” are triggered: the damage becomes amplified – and in a “self-contained” cycle that continues to cause destruction. The neurodegenerative damage in the brain activates microglial cells that also drive the disease forward, along with the formation of oxygen radicals that destroy lipids and proteins in the brain. At the same time, damage occurs to the mitochondria, which act as the power plants and energy providers to cells in the brain. This – coupled with normal brain ageing and the associated deposition of iron – also causes further damage.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.
.
.
Visit our MS Learning Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/msviewsandnews
