"Scientists Identify Differences Between Relapsing/Remitting and Progressive Multiple Sclerosis" - Mark Terry
Multiple sclerosis is an often-disabling disease of the central nervous system caused by damage to the myelin coating around the nerves, according to researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The disease is quite variable, but falls into two broad types, relapsing-remitting MS, in which patients often go into clinical remission, and progression MS, which does not have remission periods, but is marked by continued deterioration. The research, which was published in BRAIN, A Journal of Neurology, identifies specific biological differences between the two types of diseases, which has the potential to lead to new therapeutic approaches and diagnostic testing. “Because the brain is bathed by the CSF, we asked whether treating cultured neurons with the CSF from MS patients with a relapsing/remitting or a progressive disease course would possibly elicit different effects on neuronal mitochondrial function,” said Patrizia Casaccia, MD, PhD, professor of neuroscience, neurology, genetics and genomic sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “We detected dramatic differences in the shape of the neuronal mitochondria and their ability to produce energy.”
— Patrizia Casaccia, MD, PhD, Professor, Neuroscience, Neurology, Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Additional coverage: Science Magazine; Neuroscience News; Medical Xpress