Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease that damages myelin, the protective layer around nerves in the brain and spinal cord. When myelin is damaged, nerve signals don’t work properly, leading to various symptoms.
Unfortunately, there are no treatments that can fully protect or repair myelin. Certain immune cells in the body, like microglia and macrophages, help support myelin-producing cells (oligodendrocytes), but we still don’t fully understand how.
Dr Monokesh Sen and his team believe that tiny particles released by these immune cells, called extracellular vesicles, play an important role in cell communication and may help with myelin repair.
To investigate this, they will collect blood samples from both people with progressive MS (a form of MS with ongoing inflammation, nerve damage and impaired myelin repair) and individuals without MS. From these samples, they will extract immune cells called peripheral blood mononuclear cells, grow them in the lab, and turn them into macrophages. These macrophages naturally release extracellular vesicles (MEVs), which we will collect using a specialised process called ultracentrifugation.
Next, the team will administer MEVs into a laboratory model and track where they go in the body and at the cellular level. They will then test their effects in another MS laboratory model to see how they influence oligodendrocytes and myelin repair.
By understanding how these MEVs affect myelin regeneration, Dr Sen and his team hope to find new ways to repair myelin and develop future treatments that could improve the lives of people with MS.
$25,000
2025
1 year - starting 2025
Current project
