Dipartimento di Medicina dei Sistemi, Università Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
Mult Scler. 2014 Apr;20(4):451-7. doi: 10.1177/1352458513512541. Epub 2013 Nov 21.
Relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) is characterized by the occurrence of clinical relapses, followed by remitting phases of a neurological deficit. Clinical remission after a relapse can be complete, with a return to baseline function that was present before, but is sometimes only partial or absent. Remyelination and repair of the neuronal damage do contribute to recovery, but they are usually incomplete.
We tested the hypothesis that synaptic plasticity, namely long-term potentiation (LTP), may represent an additional substrate for compensating the clinical defect that results from the incomplete repair of neuronal damage.
We evaluated the correlation between a measure of LTP, named paired associative stimulation (PAS), at the time of relapse and symptom recovery, in a cohort of 22 newly-diagnosed MS patients.
PAS-induced LTP was normal in patients with complete recovery, and reduced in patients showing incomplete or absent recovery, 12 weeks after the relapse onset. A multivariate regression model showed that PAS-induced LTP and age may contribute to predict null, partial or complete symptom recovery after a relapse.
Synaptic plasticity may contribute to symptom recovery after a relapse in MS; and PAS, measured during a relapse, may be used as a predictor of recovery.
复发缓解型多发性硬化症（RRMS）的特征是出现临床复发，随后是神经功能缺损的缓解期。复发后的临床缓解可以完全缓解，恢复到之前存在的基线功能，但有时只是部分缓解或无缓解。髓鞘再生和神经元损伤的修复确实有助于恢复，但通常是不完全的。
我们测试了一个假设，即突触可塑性，即长时程增强（LTP），可能代表一种额外的基质，用于补偿神经元损伤不完全修复导致的临床缺陷。
我们评估了在一组 22 名新诊断的 MS 患者中，复发时配对联想刺激（PAS）的 LTP 测量值与症状恢复之间的相关性。
在完全恢复的患者中，PAS 诱导的 LTP 正常，而在 12 周后出现不完全或无恢复的患者中，PAS 诱导的 LTP 减少。多元回归模型显示，PAS 诱导的 LTP 和年龄可能有助于预测复发后症状的完全、部分或无恢复。
突触可塑性可能有助于 MS 患者复发后的症状恢复；在复发期间测量的 PAS 可能可用作恢复的预测因子。
