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Review
. 2020 May 15;10(5):299.
doi: 10.3390/brainsci10050299.

Molecular Interventions towards Multiple Sclerosis Treatment

Athanasios Metaxakis  1 , Dionysia Petratou  1 , Nektarios Tavernarakis  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Molecular Interventions towards Multiple Sclerosis Treatment

Athanasios Metaxakis et al. Brain Sci. .

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune life-threatening disease, afflicting millions of people worldwide. Although the disease is non-curable, considerable therapeutic advances have been achieved through molecular immunotherapeutic approaches, such as peptides vaccination, administration of monoclonal antibodies, and immunogenic copolymers. The main aims of these therapeutic strategies are to shift the MS-related autoimmune response towards a non-inflammatory T helper 2 (Th2) cells response, inactivate or ameliorate cytotoxic autoreactive T cells, induce secretion of anti-inflammatory cytokines, and inhibit recruitment of autoreactive lymphocytes to the central nervous system (CNS). These approaches can efficiently treat autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an essential system to study MS in animals, but they can only partially inhibit disease progress in humans. Nevertheless, modern immunotherapeutic techniques remain the most promising tools for the development of safe MS treatments, specifically targeting the cellular factors that trigger the initiation of the disease.

Keywords: B cell receptor; T cell receptor; delivery methods; immunotherapy; monoclonal antibodies; multiple sclerosis; tolerance; vaccine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mechanism of action of immunomodulatory treatments for multiple sclerosis.
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