Health & Environmental Research Online (HERO)


Print Feedback Export to File
1570458 
Journal Article 
Multiple sclerosis: An immune or neurodegenerative disorder? 
Trapp, BD; Nave, KA 
2008 
Yes 
Annual Review of Neuroscience
ISSN: 0147-006X
EISSN: 1545-4126 
Annual Review of Neuroscience 
31 
247-269 
18558855 
WOS:000257992200011 
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory-mediated
demyelinating disease of the human central nervous system. The clinical disease course is
variable, usually starts with reversible episodes of neurological disability in the third or
fourth decade of life, and transforms into a disease of continuous and irreversible neurological
decline by the sixth or seventh decade. We review data that support neurodegeneration as the
major cause of irreversible neurological disability in MS patients. We question whether
inflammatory demyelination is primary or secondary in the disease process and discuss the
challenges of elucidating the cause of MS and developing therapies that will delay or prevent the
irreversible and progressive neurological decline that most MS patients endure. 
myelin; demyelination; axonal degeneration; brain atrophy; cortical pathology; axon-glial interactions