New knowledge on MS progression

It has proved difficult to predict the likelihood of progression of disease in MS.  New work shows that there is a complex relationship between ependymal cells at the tissue interface with CSF and extrinsic factors and also with cell-intrinsic factors that provide new avenues for prognostic and perhaps therapeutic advantage.  

A team led by Dr Jo Anne Stratton, Asst Prof., Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital, McGill University has uncovered compelling evidence of a correlation between surface-in gradient of tissue damage and disease progression/severity.  Similarly, these ependymal cells (specialised glia) are highly susceptible to modification by IFN𝞬 that results in both changed protein expression and direct morphological changes that predict worse surface-in gradients of disease.

One part of this wide-ranging study was single nucleus RNA sequencing.  Reserved aliquots of isolated nuclei were assessed for quality / blebbing before the downstream processing.  Interestingly, nucleus quality was determined by direct visual microscopic analysis of morphology and counting by flow cytometer; nuclei being labelled with DRAQ5 to achieve analysis on both platforms. 

Reference:

Groh, Adam MR, et al. "An MRI-informed histo-molecular analysis implicates ependymal cells in the pathogenesis of periventricular pathology in multiple sclerosis." bioRxiv (2025): 2025-01. DOI:10.1101/2025.01.14.633055