Benítez-Fernández Rocío, Melero-Jerez Carolina, Gil Carmen, de la Rosa Enrique J, Martínez Ana, de Castro Fernando
Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas-CSIC, Ramiro de Maeztu 9, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
Instituto Cajal-CSIC, Avda. Doctor Arce 37, 28002 Madrid, Spain.
Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Feb 28;22(5):2440. doi: 10.3390/ijms22052440.
The need for remyelinating drugs is essential for healing disabling diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). One of the reasons for the lack of this class of therapies is the impossibility to monitor remyelination in vivo, which is of utmost importance to perform effective clinical trials. Here, we show how optical coherence tomography (OCT), a cheap and non-invasive technique commonly used in ophthalmology, may be used to assess remyelination in vivo in MS patients. Our pioneer approach validates OCT as a technique to study remyelination of the optic nerve and reflects what is occurring in non-accessible central nervous system (CNS) structures, like the spinal cord. In this study we used the orally bioavailable small molecule VP3.15, confirming its therapeutical potential as a neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, and probably remyelinating drug for MS. Altogether, our results confirm the usefulness of OCT to monitor the efficacy of remyelinating therapies in vivo and underscore the relevance of VP3.15 as a potential disease modifying drug for MS therapy.
对于治疗多发性硬化症（MS）等致残性疾病而言，对髓鞘再生药物的需求至关重要。这类疗法匮乏的原因之一是无法在体内监测髓鞘再生情况，而这对于开展有效的临床试验极为关键。在此，我们展示了光学相干断层扫描（OCT）这一在眼科常用的廉价且非侵入性技术，如何可用于评估MS患者体内的髓鞘再生情况。我们的开创性方法证实了OCT作为研究视神经髓鞘再生的技术的有效性，并反映了在诸如脊髓等难以触及的中枢神经系统（CNS）结构中所发生的情况。在本研究中，我们使用了口服生物可利用的小分子VP3.15，证实了其作为一种对MS具有神经保护、抗炎以及可能具有髓鞘再生作用的治疗潜力。总之，我们的结果证实了OCT在体内监测髓鞘再生疗法疗效方面的有用性，并强调了VP3.15作为一种潜在的用于MS治疗的疾病修饰药物的相关性。
