microglial cells

A protein called spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) is critical for microglia, the brain’s immune cells, to clear the toxic debris that accumulates in multiple sclerosis (MS) and other neurological disorders, a mouse model study shows. “We have discovered a master controller of the cell type and processes that are…

Based on findings from the first two secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) patients given foralumab nasal spray, an experimental therapy, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved starting treatment in up to eight other patients under a special access program. Those enrolled in this intermediate-size expanded access…

Six months of treatment with foralumab, an experimental nasal spray, safely and effectively improved motor and cognitive function while easing immune activation and inflammatory responses in a person with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS), Tiziana Life Sciences, the therapy’s developer, announced. The patient — the first with MS to…

The presence of chronic active lesions in the brain may provide a clue as to how quickly multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms will progress. Researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) call these lesions “smoldering inflammation.” Their study, just published in JAMA Neurology, indicates that the more lesions…

The complement system, a part of our non-adaptable (innate) immune defenses, is activated in lesions inside the brain’s gray matter and may well contribute to the relentless progression of multiple sclerosis (MS), researchers report. The findings offer new insights into mechanisms driving the development of this disease — particularly its primary progressive forms.

Researchers have isolated the particular cell types likely to initiate common brain disorders and diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and Alzheimer’s disease, a finding that may point the way to new and targeted treatments. The brain has a complex cellular architecture characterized by a diverse set of cell types that are…