Research
Novel biomarkers - nEUROinflammation
Novel biomarkers
Description
Stroke and MS are complex diseases with several mechanisms contributing sequentially or simultaneously to their pathophysiology and progression. Even though diagnosis of the acute stroke is not considered problematic, MS with variable clinical presentations has no diagnostic laboratory test. Importantly, while MRI is a valuable tool to follow up the progression of these diseases, there are no biomarkers that could be used to dissect the contribution of various disease mechanisms, preventing therefore the stratification of subcategories for MS and of disease stages and prediction of disease course of MS. Moreover, the lack of mechanism-dependent biomarkers impairs treatment selection and evaluation of prognosis for treatment success, and especially prevents the evaluation of novel therapeutics. Though it is unlikely that one biomarker alone could function as a true surrogate, biomarkers can provide insight into the mechanism of action of a drug and could suffice for the pre-screening of prospective therapeutics. In this ITN partner 10 will develop and test novel biomarker approaches using MRI and micro-PET imaging as well as screens of body fluids (blood, CSF, urine) to detect alterations in key components of immune response and inflammation in MS and stroke. These components include inflammatory modulators, mediators of oxidative and nitrosative stress as well as lipid or protein modifications secondary to specific inflammatory and stress responses of various cell types involved in MS and stroke pathogenesis and recovery. The imaging technologies and body fluid analysis methods will be employed for the stroke and MS models made available by partners 2 and 12 and taking advantage of the modern imaging platforms made available by partners 2, 7, and 8. The ESR will work at the laboratories of partner 7 under supervision of partners 10 and 7.
Publications
Tasks and methodology
Planned secondment
Partner 2, Spanish National Research Council, Evaluation of new tools to track BMDM by 2-photon microscopy, 10 month