Kurzfassung

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is the most common chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS) in the western world and it leads to devastating disability in young adults, with only limited treatment options currently available. The socioeconomic burden of this disease is tremendous, since healthcare costs are very high and it affects decisions young patients must make for the rest of their lives. Findings in patients are a complex composite of inflammation (with demyelination,...Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is the most common chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS) in the western world and it leads to devastating disability in young adults, with only limited treatment options currently available. The socioeconomic burden of this disease is tremendous, since healthcare costs are very high and it affects decisions young patients must make for the rest of their lives. Findings in patients are a complex composite of inflammation (with demyelination, remyelination, axonal/neuronal damage) typically in subcortical, but also cortical, disseminated lesions as well as neurodegeneration. Remissions of clinical relapses point to repair capacities of the CNS, which exhibits strong interindividual and course dependent differences.

Spokesperson: Prof. Frauke Zipp (Department of Neurology)

Projects with a co-PI from Mainz

• A3: G protein-mediated signaling in immune cells: implications for neuroinflammation (Wettschureck/Kurschus)


• B4: Impact of antigen-presenting cells on T cell responses in chronic neuroinflammation (Zipp/Bopp)


• B5: Imaging of damage and repair in MS patients – Impact of new lesions on network activity (Deichmann/Zipp)


• B9: Molecular mechanisms underlying T cell mediated neuronal damage (Zipp/Rajalingam)


• A7: Sources and functional significance of IL-6 in shaping autoreactive T cell responses in the peripheral immune compartment and the CNS (Waisman/Korn)


• A9: Analysis and therapeutic modification of T cell responses in multiple sclerosis (Jonuleit/Wiendl)


• B7: Oligodendrocyte progenitor cells in de- and remyelination: release of differentiation brakes in mouse and human cells (Trotter-Kyewski/Kuhlmann)


• Z2: Clinical translational unit: Immunobiology of distinct patient phenotypes (Wiendl/Hemmer/Hohlfeld/Zipp)