Multiple sclerosis

What role do a common receptor and diet play in chronic inflammation? That is the question that the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC) and other partners will pursue over the next three years in a consortium project funded by the BMBF.

Three MDC teams have now been awarded grants from the BMBF for their ideas. The grants aim to make laboratory discoveries available to patients as quickly as possible. The focus is on creating new approaches for diagnosing and treating cancer and multiple sclerosis.

Researchers from the ECRC in Berlin, together with scientists from the United States and Canada, have discovered a sugar molecule whose levels are reduced in the blood of patients with particularly severe multiple sclerosis. Their discovery could pave the way for a new therapeutic approach, the team reports in medical journal JAMA Neurology.

Enlarged ventricles in the brains of people with multiple sclerosis were previously considered a sign of tissue loss. But a team at the MDC and ECRC demonstrated that this expansion often recedes. A study published in JCI Insight now shows that the process observed in mice is transferable to humans.

A simple sugar found in human breast milk and sold as an over-the-counter dietary supplement, promotes myelin repair in mouse models. It correlates with myelination levels in multiple sclerosis patients according to a new study published in JBC by scientists from University of California, Irvine and ECRC.

Previous approaches to treat multiple sclerosis have focused on T and B cells. A group at the MDC now presents a new strategy in "Nature Immunology". According to this strategy, it may be more effective to fight another form of immune cells - certain monocytes.

Dr. Omar Dzaye is investigating ways to help immunotherapy drugs cross the blood-brain barrier more easily, so that they can be more effective in fighting brain cancer. An Else Kröner Memorial Grant will now allow him to carry out further research in this field.

The German Society of Internal Medicine (DGIM) has named a study on the connection between intestinal flora, salt consumption, and high blood pressure the best clinical-experimental work in internal medicine of last year. Lead author Dr. Nicola Wilck was given the Theodor Frerichs Award.

Common salt reduces the number of certain lactic acid bacteria in the gut of mice and humans according to a study published in Nature by Berlin’s Max Delbrück Center and Charité. This has an impact on immune cells which are partly responsible for autoimmune diseases and hypertension. Probiotics ameliorate the symptoms of disease in mice.

For a long time doctors have warned that a high-salt diet drives blood pressure upwards, increasing...