Identifying the missing link between myelin loss and nerve cell death

Summary

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a neurodegenerative disease with no clear cause and no cure. To improve the lives of people with MS, treatments must stop the disease from progressing, protect nerve cells in the brain and restore brain function.  

Myelin is the insulating sheath that that wraps around nerve cells in the brain. In MS, the cells that produce the myelin die, leading to myelin loss in the brain. Myelin loss slows or stops nerve cells from sending the electrical signals that they use to communicate in networks within the brain. Currently, we do not know how myelin loss then leads to the underlying nerve cells dying and worsening symptoms in people with MS over time.  

However, we suspect that myelin loss is not only associated with a slowing of the electrical signal, but with other changes to nerve cell communication which causes nerve cells to respond more strongly to chemical signals. When this response goes too far, nerve cells can die, which leads to progression of the disease.  

This project aims to understand how nerve cell communication changes, starting from the earliest stages of myelin loss, and how this could lead to nerve cells dying. We will identify how treatments could target nerve cell communication to protect nerve cells, halt disease progression and restore brain function to overcome debilitating symptoms in people with MS.