Poor elimination of waste generated by the activity of neurons could well explain the progressive destruction of nerve fibers in patients with multiple sclerosisaccording to the results of a study published in the medical journal Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism. These results were obtained on mice.
The multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease where the patient’s defense mechanism attacks their own central nervous system, brain and spinal cord. It causes motor, sensory and cognitive disorders.
Using a high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging device, Inserm researchers at the Cyceron center in Caen observed the brain and spinal cord tissue of mice suffering from a model of multiple sclerosis. They thus noticed a deregulation of this system whose origin is to be sought in aquaporin, the set of proteins which form “pores” in biological membranes and which are permeable to water molecules.
“The pores in the biological membranes and which are permeable to water molecules. Like a dam on a river”, explains Fabian Docagne, “these channels located at the level of the extensions of the astrocytes, which are called feet, regulate the circulation of the glymphatic system by directing the flow of liquid. If the aquaporins are delocalized throughout the astrocyte, the circulation no longer takes place properly.”
Today, scientists are seeking to identify therapeutic targets that would make it possible to intervene on the glymphatic system at different stages of the disease. “The search for new non-invasive imaging techniques in humans would make it possible in the future to observe the effects of a treatment that targets the glymphatic system of a patient, envisages the researcher. Thus we will be able to study the evolution or regression of the disease Options that could benefit other pathologies, in particular neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s diseasefor which dysregulation of the glymphatic system has also been demonstrated”.
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