Researchers at the University of Zurich and Munich’s LMU Klinikum hospital have studied the immune system of pairs of monozygotic twins to identify the influence of the environment and of genetics in cases of multiple sclerosis. In the process, they may have discovered precursor cells of the disease-causing T cells.
Researchers at the University of Zurich and Munich’s LMU Klinikum hospital have studied the immune system of pairs of monozygotic twins to identify the influence of the environment and of genetics in cases of multiple sclerosis. In the process, they may have discovered precursor cells of the disease-causing T cells.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system and the most common cause of neurological impairment in young adults. In MS, the patient’s own immune system attacks the brain and spinal cord, resulting in cumulative neurological deficits such as damaged sight, sensory disturbances, motor deficits (e.g. limiting the ability to walk) as well as cognitive impairment. Although the cause of MS is still unclear, a variety of genetic risk factors and environmental influences have already been linked to the disease.
Studies in recent years have clearly shown that genetic risk variants are a necessary condition for developing multiple sclerosis. “Based on our study, we were able to show that about half of the composition of our immune system is determined by genetics,” says Florian Ingelfinger, a PhD candidate at the UZH Institute of Experimental Immunology. The study by the team led by immunologist Burkhard Becher, professor at the Institute of Experimental Immunology at UZH, and the research groups of Lisa Ann Gerdes and Eduardo Beltrán of the Institute of Clinical Neuroimmunology at the LMU Klinikum, shows that these genetic influences, while always present in MS patients, are not on their own sufficient to trigger multiple sclerosis. In the study, 61 pairs of monozygotic twins where one twin is affected by MS whereas the co-twin is healthy were examined. From a genetic point of view, the twins were thus identical. “Although the healthy twins also had the maximum genetic risk for MS, they showed no clinical signs of the disease,” says Lisa Ann Gerdes.
Read More: University of Zurich
