Researchers have developed an antibody with potential therapeutic effects against multiple sclerosis. The discovery opens up a new strategy for controlling the disease.
For the cells of the immune system circulating in the bloodstream to reach the central nervous system, they must penetrate the blood-brain barrier and blood-spinal cord barrier. During previous work, the authors studied a factor involved in opening the blood-brain barrier, the NMDA receptor. They found that blocking the interaction of this receptor with tPA has beneficial effects linked with maintaining the integrity of the barrier.
Scientists at the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, in France, developed a monoclonal antibody (Glunomab) directed against the specific site on the NMDA receptor to which tPA binds. In cellular models of the human blood-brain and blood-spinal cord barriers, the use of this antibody prevented opening of the barrier under inflammatory conditions, limiting the entry of lymphocytes. The team then tested the therapeutic effects of the antibody in an experimental mouse model of MS. After intravenous injection of Glunomab, the progression of partial or total paralysis of the limbs – as assessed by a clinical score – was blocked. In these treated mice, this effect was linked with reduced infiltration of lymphocytes into the nervous tissue, and reduced demyelination.
Results of mouse model studies sometimes do not translate to humans and may be years away from being a marketable treatment. However, the authors argue that by preventing myelin destruction by the cells of the immune system, this strategy might represent a promising therapy for the control of MS.
The study was published in the journal Brain.
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