In people living with MS, the coating around nerves, called myelin, is attacked by the immune system. Myelin can be repaired by cells called oligodendrocytes that survive the immune attack, or by recruiting support cells called oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs). However, in people living with MS, OPCs and surviving oligodendrocytes lose their ability to repair myelin and we do not understand why.
Dr Jessica Fletcher will take four approaches to learn why OPCs and oligodendrocytes no longer make myelin in MS:
By identifying why myelin repair fails in MS, Dr Fletcher and her team will build the knowledge base needed to develop effective brain repair treatments.
Dr Fletcher and her team have discovered that supporting oligodendrocytes is essential for myelin repair. They also identified some of the conditions oligodendrocytes need to produce myelin.
Oligodendrocytes are the cells that make myelin. When myelin is repeatedly damaged, both newly formed oligodendrocytes and the older cells that survive these attacks become vulnerable. Successful myelin repair needs strategies that help oligodendrocytes stay healthy and survive within MS lesions.
Pushing oligodendrocytes to mature and make new myelin isn’t enough on its own. Treatments that only drive immature oligodendrocytes (OPCs) to produce myelin do not result in effective repair. These cells also need the right support signals to survive and function properly.
Dr Fletcher and her team found that timing is also important. There are two key time windows where oligodendrocytes can be induced to make myelin. By identifying when surviving oligodendrocytes respond most strongly, researchers can develop targeted approaches to help them make new myelin during these times.
OPCs can still help to repair myelin while doing other jobs, such as clearing myelin debris and helping refine how nerve cells communicate. Dr Fletcher’s findings suggest that even while carrying out these roles, OPCs can still go on to mature and produce new myelin.
This study also found that in people with a very high genetic risk for MS, their genetic background alone can change how brain cells behave. This occurs even without immune activation or other known MS risk factors.
This project has also helped Dr Fletcher and her team obtain an NHMRC Ideas Grant to support their continuing work on genetic risk and MS progression and an MS Australia Project Grant.
Over the next year, Dr Fletcher and her team will continue investigating the signals that may promote oligodendrocyte survival, other factors that impact oligodendrocytes’ myelin production, the effects of OPCs’ “other jobs” on how they respond to maturation signals, and genetic risk and MS progression.
Last updated 31 March 2026
Professor Kaylene Young
$225,000
2024
3 years
Current project
