Diagnosis of multiple sclerosis

Scientists have identified a biomarker that will allow predicting multiple sclerosis at an early stage

Dmitry Mazalevsky, Naked Science

The biomarker of multiple sclerosis, which can serve as an early warning of the disease, has shown promising results in testing on both humans and animals. In addition, the identified compound can also become the goal of the therapy itself.

Researchers at Purdue University and Indiana University have discovered that acrolein – a molecule that is considered a product of metabolic waste accumulated in people with certain neurological disorders, such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and Parkinson's disease – can be used to diagnose multiple sclerosis.

According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, about 2.3 million people worldwide suffer from this disease, about a million of them live in the United States. The disease is usually diagnosed at the age of 20 to 50 years and affects twice as many women as men. A cure for the disease has not yet been found.

Dr. David Mattson, professor of neurology and director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at Indiana University, argues that if the results of the study are confirmed, acrolein may also allow doctors to monitor the effectiveness of treatment. The work itself is published in the journal Frontiers in Neurology (Tully et al., Systematic Acrolein Elevations in Mice With Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis and Patients With Multiple Sclerosis).

"We are trying to correlate acrolein levels with the activity of multiple sclerosis, which will potentially help us monitor the activity of the disease using a blood test. If our assumptions are confirmed, it will help us understand the effectiveness of immunotherapy and whether the chosen treatment method works or we need to switch to another one," explains the scientist.

Acrolein is a byproduct of fat metabolism. In the course of their work, the scientists found that the accumulation of this molecule is present in models of neurological diseases of animals, such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and even spinal cord and brain injuries. Acrolein is thought to damage cells by destroying lipids that protect nerve tissue, in a process called lipid peroxidation (POL). Researchers believe that blood and urine tests can display the level of acrolein in patients.

According to scientists, the levels of this compound in urine and blood correlate with each other: in MS patients who had the highest level of acrolein in the blood, the highest level of the same substance in the urine was also found. However, scientists still do not know whether this level is related to the activity of the disease itself. There are already drugs on the market that target this compound, but they have a strong effect on other indicators, so specialists need to first conduct additional research on their therapeutic effect and safety.

 "Before trying to use certain drugs to reduce the level of acrolein in MS patients, it is necessary to confirm whether acrolein really correlates with the activity of the disease: this requires larger-scale clinical trials with a large number of participants. Then we have to prove that these drugs can actually reduce acrolein levels in MS patients. If this is confirmed, then patients taking these drugs as part of the treatment of blood pressure or psychiatric diseases will kill two birds with one stone," Matson is sure.

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