Abstract
Demyelinating diseases encompass a range of acute and chronic diseases affecting both the central and peripheral nervous systems. Many of these diseases share elements of autoimmune etiology, such as the presence of autoreactive T cells and B cells producing autoantibodies, followed by cell- and complement-mediated tissue damage, often following viral infection. The most common chronic demyelinating disease is multiple sclerosis (MS), a neuroinflammatory disease affecting the central nervous system (CNS). Histologically, the disease is characterized by lymphocytic infiltration of the CNS with oligodendrocyte loss, but its etiology is complex and not fully understood. Epidemiological studies implicate both environmental and genetic factors in its pathogenesis. Approved pharmaceutical treatments are predominantly immunosuppressive agents targeting the inflammatory components of disease. This review will highlight the mechanisms by which these treatments are understood to interact with the complex cast of inflammatory mediators present in MS pathogenesis.
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Falk, I., Jacobson, S. (2017). Multiple Sclerosis. In: Ikezu, T., Gendelman, H. (eds) Neuroimmune Pharmacology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44022-4_23
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