For decades, multiple sclerosis research has focused on myelin, the insulation around the brain’s wiring. Scientists paid less attention to another loss that was happening in parallel: neurons in the cortex, the seat of higher thinking and cognition, were quietly dying.
A team led by UC San Francisco, University of Cambridge, and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center now traces that loss to a breakdown in the DNA of neurons as inflammation overwhelms the brain. The finding helps explain why brain scans of people with MS reveal damage not only to white matter, the brain’s wiring, but also to the brain’s gray matter – and it points to a new direction for the field.
“It’s become clear that in addition to promoting remyelination in progressive MS, it’s essential to find ways to directly protect grey matter neurons…