Silva Markovic-Plese, MD, PhD and her team at Thomas Jefferson University have been studying RRMS for more than a decade. In a previous study, they noticed elevated levels of an immune chemical called, IL-11, in the cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord of RRMS patients. They wanted to explore why.

In a new paper, published in EMBO Reports, a team including Davide Trotti, PhD, a neuroscientist at Thomas Jefferson University, showed how altered glucose metabolism in the brain and spinal cord are damaging to motor neurons in preclinical models that carry the genetic C9-NRE mutation. 

In a recent study, Scott A. Waldman, MD, PhD, and his team discovered that a gut receptor protein called GUCY2C could prevent PD development by protecting against brain damage and toxic insult.