Review of the novelties presented at the 28th Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) (II).

The most relevant data presented at the 28th edition of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) held in October 2012 in France have been summarised in the fifth edition of the Post-ECTRIMS Expert Meeting held in Madrid in October 2012. This review is the result of the meeting, which is being published in three parts. This second part of the Post-ECTRIMS review discusses the biology of recovery and remyelination in multiple sclerosis (MS) as well as the different repair and endogenous and exogenous remyelination strategies currently being evaluated based on the fact that resident microglia and oligodendroglial progenitor cells have been implicated in the remyelination process. This review also discusses the current state and future use of biomarkers in MS and proposes as markers of neurodegeneration the following: T2 lesion volume and brain atrophy using MRI and the loss of the ganglion cell layer as assessed by optical coherence tomography. A greater future utility for double inversion recovery (DIR) sequences is proposed to correlate cognitive impairment with MS impairment, given its higher diagnostic yield in locating and defining cortical lesions. The availability of novel biomarkers in the future requires strict validation. In this context, this paper proposes possible areas of action to improve the current situation and also presents the latest research results in identifying potential candidates with useful diagnostic characteristics, prognostic characteristics, treatment responses, and safety procedures.