Drug library screen identifies inhibitors of toxic astrogliosis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic neuroinflammatory disorder, in which activated immune cells directly or indirectly induce demyelination and axonal degradation. Inflammatory stimuli also change the phenotype of astrocytes, making them neurotoxic. The resulting 'toxic astrocyte' phenotype has been observed in animal models of neuroinflammation and in MS lesions. Proteins secreted by toxic astrocytes are elevated in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of MS patients and reproducibly correlate with the rates of accumulation of neurological disability and brain atrophy. This suggests a pathogenic role for neurotoxic astrocytes in MS.

Methods

Here, we applied a commercially available library of small molecules that are either Food and Drug Administration-approved or in c

SUBMITTER: Masvekar R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8926038 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature