Scope of the project:

 

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS), in which activated T cells, B cells and macrophages invade CNS tissues and cause neuronal damage and permanent neurological disability. However, the role of the immune system and the contribution of autoimmune T and B cells to the initiation and progression of disease are still unclear. While existing experimental models for MS provide compelling evidence for type I autoimmune responses involving Th1 and Th17 CD4 T cells in the pathogenesis of disease, they fail to reproduce other important MS hallmarks, such as B cell and CD8 T cell involvement, and oxidative injury that underlies neurodegeneration and possibly mediates the transition of MS from relapse-remitting to progressive forms. They also often fail to predict the efficacy and safety of novel therapeutics in humans. For this reason there is an urgent need for better disease models that would allow direct functional assessment of patient immune cells in vivo.

 

Time for completion: The duration of the project is 3 years. The beneficiaries of the project received an extension of one additional year, using the six-month horizontal extension, granted by GSRI.