This is a very interesting finding about PPMS. (To me, anyways )
Primary progressive MS confirmed as own disorder in mouse study
Excerpt from the article:
“Our animal model relies on direct transmission of disease pathology using CSF from MS patients, which arguably mimics [disease] mechanisms occurring in patients with greater specificity than any currently existing animal model of MS,” the scientists wrote.
The results showed that mice injected with CSF from PPMS patients started to exhibit motor symptoms, such as reduced grip strength and limp tails. Tissue analyses showed these mice also had regions of damage to myelin, the fatty sheath around nerve fibers that is progressively lost in MS, with strong pro-inflammatory activation of nervous system support cells.
All in all, the clinical picture of these mice was very similar to MS, the researchers noted.
By comparison, mice injected with CSF from patients with relapsing forms of disease did not develop motor symptoms or show signs of myelin damage.
“The motor impairments and [tissue] changes observed only in spinal cords of PPMS CSF-injected mice suggest that the pathogenic [disease-driving] capacity of CSF is unique to PPMS,” the researchers wrote. They noted, however, that “this does not exclude the possibility that other shared non-CSF-mediated pathological mechanisms exist between PPMS” and other MS types.
Primary progressive MS confirmed as own disorder in mouse study
Excerpt from the article:
“Our animal model relies on direct transmission of disease pathology using CSF from MS patients, which arguably mimics [disease] mechanisms occurring in patients with greater specificity than any currently existing animal model of MS,” the scientists wrote.
The results showed that mice injected with CSF from PPMS patients started to exhibit motor symptoms, such as reduced grip strength and limp tails. Tissue analyses showed these mice also had regions of damage to myelin, the fatty sheath around nerve fibers that is progressively lost in MS, with strong pro-inflammatory activation of nervous system support cells.
All in all, the clinical picture of these mice was very similar to MS, the researchers noted.
By comparison, mice injected with CSF from patients with relapsing forms of disease did not develop motor symptoms or show signs of myelin damage.
“The motor impairments and [tissue] changes observed only in spinal cords of PPMS CSF-injected mice suggest that the pathogenic [disease-driving] capacity of CSF is unique to PPMS,” the researchers wrote. They noted, however, that “this does not exclude the possibility that other shared non-CSF-mediated pathological mechanisms exist between PPMS” and other MS types.
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