Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a major health problem, leading to a significant disability and patient suffering. Although chronic activation of the immune system is a hallmark of the disease, its pathogenesis is poorly understood, while current treatments only ameliorate the disease and may produce severe side effects.
Methods: Here, we applied a network-based modeling approach based on phosphoproteomic data to uncover the differential activation in signaling wiring between healthy donors, untreated patients, and those under different treatments.
Objectives: To evaluate intrathecal immunoglobulin M (IgM) production, as compared to previously established risk factors, as risk factor for conversion from clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) to multiple sclerosis (MS) and to explore the association of intrathecal IgM production with onset age and radiologic and CSF findings in CIS/early MS.
Methods: Comprehensive CSF data, including oligoclonal immunoglobulin G (IgG) bands (OCB) and calculated intrathecal IgM and IgG production, were collected in a prospective study of 150 patients with CIS/early MS with regular clinical and MRI assessments.
Results: Intrathecal IgM production >0% occurred in 23.
Ann Clin Transl Neurol
August 2018
Background: Baló's concentric sclerosis (BCS) is a rare condition characterized by concentrically layered white matter lesions. While its pathogenesis is unknown, hypoxia-induced tissue injury and chemotactic stimuli have been proposed as potential causes of BCS lesion formation. BCS has been suggested to be a variant of multiple sclerosis (MS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Gait is often impaired in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS), but detailed assessment of gait impairment in research and care remains challenging. In a previous pilot study we reported the feasibility of visual perceptive computing (VPC) for gait assessment in PwMS using the Short Maximum Speed Walk (SMSW), which assesses gait on recording distances confined to less than 4 meters.
Objective: To investigate the equivalence of SMSW to rater-based timed 25ft.
Understanding processes performed by an intact visual cortex as the basis for developing methods that enhance or restore visual perception is of great interest to both researchers and medical practitioners. Here, we explore whether contrast sensitivity, a main function of the primary visual cortex (V1), can be improved in healthy subjects by repetitive, noninvasive anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Contrast perception was measured via threshold perimetry directly before and after intervention (tDCS or sham stimulation) on each day over 5 consecutive days (24 subjects, double-blind study).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To investigate the association of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigen-1 (EBNA-1) and viral capsid antigen (VCA) immunoglobulin (Ig)G antibodies in serum as well as EBV DNA load in saliva with radiological and clinical disease activity in patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) and early relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS).
Methods: EBNA-1 and VCA immunoglobulin (Ig)G antibodies were determined in serum of 100 patients with CIS/early RRMS and 60 healthy controls. EBV DNA load was measured in saliva of 48 patients and 50 controls.
Background: Physical activity (PA) is frequently restricted in people with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) and aiming to enhance PA is considered beneficial in this population. We here aimed to explore two standard methods (subjective plus objective) to assess PA reduction in PwMS and to describe the relation of PA to health-related quality of life (hrQoL).
Methods: PA was objectively measured over a 7-day period in 26 PwMS (EDSS 1.
Prospective clinical studies support a link between psychological stress and multiple sclerosis (MS) disease severity, and peripheral stress systems are frequently dysregulated in MS patients. However, the exact link between neurobiological stress systems and MS symptoms is unknown. To evaluate the link between neural stress responses and disease parameters, we used an arterial-spin-labeling functional MRI stress paradigm in 36 MS patients and 21 healthy controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Neuroimmunol
August 2016
We analyzed the fine specificity of antibodies to Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen-2 (EBNA-2) and other Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) proteins in 29 patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS, the first clinical manifestation of multiple sclerosis [MS]) and 29 controls with a peptide microarray containing 117 overlapping peptides representing the full-length EBNA-2 protein and 71 peptides from 8 further EBV proteins. While EBV peptide antibodies were elevated in CIS, suggesting that EBV contributes to MS early during disease development, they discriminated groups only slightly better than EBNA-1 antibodies. Thus, the additional value of EBV peptide antibodies as diagnostic biomarkers for CIS appears moderate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In response to DNA double-strand breaks, the histone protein H2AX becomes phosphorylated at its C-terminal serine 139 residue, referred to as γ-H2AX. Formation of γ-H2AX foci is associated with recruitment of p53-binding protein 1 (53BP1), a regulator of the cellular response to DNA double-strand breaks. γ-H2AX expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) was recently proposed as a diagnostic and disease activity marker for multiple sclerosis (MS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients frequently have postural control impairment but quantitative posturography is difficult to perform in clinical care. Recent technology facilitates new posturography approaches.
Objective: To evaluate construct validity of visual perceptive computing (VPC) for static posturography to study postural control in MS patients.
Purpose: To assess if higher-resolution magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) is a technique that can measure the in vivo mechanical properties of brain tissue and is sensitive to early signatures of brain tissue degradation in patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS).
Materials And Methods: Seventeen patients with CIS and 33 controls were investigated by MRE with a 3T MRI scanner. Full-wave field data were acquired at seven drive frequencies from 30 to 60 Hz.
Background: Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) and multiple sclerosis (MS) have a similar clinical phenotype but represent distinct diseases, requiring different therapies. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs whose expression profiles can serve as diagnostic biomarkers and which may be involved in the pathophysiology of neuroinflammatory diseases. Here, we analyzed miRNA profiles in serum and whole blood of patients with NMOSD and clinically isolated syndrome (CIS)/relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) as well as healthy controls by next-generation sequencing (NGS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Purpose: Low 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels correlate with higher disease activity in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). However, it is not clear whether low 25(OH)D levels directly contribute to increased disease activity or merely represent a consequence of reduced endogenous vitamin D synthesis in more disabled MS patients. Furthermore, recent data suggest that bioavailable vitamin D, which also integrates the levels of vitamin D binding proteins and albumin, could be a biologically more relevant parameter than 25(OH)D.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMultiple sclerosis (MS) is associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. A characteristic feature of MS is an intrathecal synthesis of immunoglobulin (Ig)G. In 90 patients with clinically isolated syndromes/early relapsing-remitting MS, serum antibodies to Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen-1, but not to EBV viral capsid antigen, rubella, or varicella zoster virus, were higher (p=0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The majority of patients with anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis suffer from persistent memory impairment despite unremarkable routine clinical magnetic resonance imaging. With improved acute care in these patients, neurocognitive impairment represents the major contributor to long-term morbidity and has thus become a focus of attention.
Methods: Forty patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis after the acute disease stage and 25 healthy control subjects underwent multimodal structural imaging that combined volumetry of hippocampal subfields with analysis of hippocampal microstructural integrity.