Molecular Basis of Multiple Sclerosis Development and Treatment
A special issue of Cells (ISSN 2073-4409). This special issue belongs to the section "Cellular Pathology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 9750
Special Issue Editors
Interests: neuroimmunology; multiple sclerosis (clinical/experimental); stroke (clinical/experimental); thromboinflammation; neuroprotection; neuroimaging
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: neuroimmunology; multiple sclerosis (clinical/experimental); animal models; glial cells; biomarkers in MS; neuroprotection; neuroimaging
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: neuroimmunology; multiple sclerosis (clinical/experimental); animal models; glial cells; immune tolerance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common neurological disease in young adults. Around 2.8 million people are estimated to live with MS worldwide, and the prevalence is increasing globally. Variations in disease courses and unpredictable clinical manifestations make this disease challenging to diagnose and treat.
MS is thought to arise as the result of environmental exposure in genetically susceptible individuals. However, many questions remain unanswered in this respect, including the exact cause(s), cell type(s), and molecular pathways involved in driving the MS risk and pathology. An inconsistent clinical course and wide range of affected central nervous system (CNS) areas between patients argue against a single specific antigen driving the disease. It also remains elusive whether the progressive MS and a highly active course with tumefactive lesions represent distinct disease entities. Significant progress has been made using the genome-wide association approach when identifying genetic variants that might contribute to MS susceptibility. These variants are distributed across the cells of both the adaptive and the innate immune system arms, suggesting that key disease processes appear to be more widespread than the formerly implied central role of dysregulated CD4+ T cells. B cells, microglia, dendritic cells, and NK cells have emerged as new disease-associated immune cell populations, although their spatial and temporal disease-specific context remains to be discovered. Besides high-risk, protective genotypes have also been identified and might help us to develop safe and effective new treatments for MS. Modern techniques such as single-cell or other high-resolution immune profiling may reveal how environmental context influences the phenotype and detrimental role of causal cells and, importantly, how to reverse their pathogenic state through different therapies.
The progress that has been made in developing new immune-modifying therapies for MS in recent years is fascinating. Nevertheless, all current drugs fail to prevent neurodegeneration. Moreover, not only are the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying their effects not completely characterized, but the specificity also needs to be improved in order to spare the protective cellular subtypes.
Recent studies have suggested that the events leading to plaque formation and neuronal decline are present much earlier than clinical symptoms occur. Thus, one of the future research goals should be early neuroprotective and remyelinating treatments that target CNS-resident cells. The inclusion of the oligoclonal bands in the new 2017 revised McDonald criteria supports the concept of early diagnosis and treatment but also underlines the need for reliable prognostic biomarkers reflecting both inflammatory and neurodegenerative aspects.
This Special Issue aims to compile original research, reviews, mini-reviews, and opinion articles addressing the molecular and cellular events underlying the onset and progression of MS, including novel aspects of current therapeutic interventions and the discovery of advanced strategies to prevent or treat this complex disease. We welcome the submission of articles covering but not limited to the following subtopics:
- Epidemiology and risk factors related to MS;
- Genetic factors of MS susceptibility;
- The role of inflammation/immune cells in MS pathology;
- Molecular and cellular mechanisms of demyelination;
- Molecular and cellular mechanisms of remyelination;
- Molecular and cellular mechanisms of neurodegeneration;
- Novel biomarkers for the diagnosis of MS;
- Mode of action of MS drugs.
Prof. Dr. Christoph Kleinschnitz
Prof. Dr. Refik Pul
Dr. Jelena Skuljec
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- multiple sclerosis
- demyelination
- remyelination
- inflammation
- neurodegeneration
- biomarker
- disease mechanism
- mode of action of MS drugs
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