Kurzfassung

Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disorder of the CNS in which the immune system inadvertently targets the CNS as a foreign entity to be eradicated. The evidence that the pathology of MS is based on an autoimmune attack is overwhelming. Central players in such an attack are T cells, which come in two distinct flavours, Helper and Killer T cells. The former are widely studied using the available animal models of MS, called EAE. Over the past 30 years, the rules and mechanism, which govern...Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disorder of the CNS in which the immune system inadvertently targets the CNS as a foreign entity to be eradicated. The evidence that the pathology of MS is based on an autoimmune attack is overwhelming. Central players in such an attack are T cells, which come in two distinct flavours, Helper and Killer T cells. The former are widely studied using the available animal models of MS, called EAE. Over the past 30 years, the rules and mechanism, which govern the behaviour of this cell population in autoimmune disease have been partially discovered, and while this knowledge has guided the therapeutic targeting of other autoimmune diseases, in MS, most of the approaches failed in clinical trials. While the animal model relies on the pathogenic nature of self-reactive helper cells, in the human pathology, killer cells are prevalent in the diseased brain. Our hypothesis is that the translation of EAE research into helping patients with MS and to combat long-term disability largely failed because we have yet to comprehend how Neuro-aggressive killer cells are regulated. The members of our team have extensive experience in a) models of killer cell mediated MS, b) cytokines which instruct T cell behaviour and c) T cell-derived cytokines relevant to neuro-inflammation. We propose to jointly study the role of cytokines in killer cell-mediated brain inflammation.» weiterlesen» einklappen