Multiple Sclerosis (MS) can be simplified by portraying the immune system to be attacking the "insulation," also known as myelin, of our nerves? But instead of focusing on how to defend the myelin sheath, why not flip to the offense and learn how to better the strength of our insulation?
During the earlier days of my Spring '26 semester, I had the privilege to learn more from Dr. Yanan Chen and her talk about using mice as a subject for increasing oligodendrocyte survival. In the article, they looked into how when the brain cells (oligodendrocytes) go under a lot of stress, they go into a state called Integrated Stress Response (ISR), essentially a "safe mode" for these cells. The problem, however, is when oligodendrocytes are in ISR, they no longer produce myelin at a rate in which is survivable.
The gene that is involved with keeping ISR active is PERK (pancreatic ER-kinase). With PERK active, it keeps the "safe mode" on meaning the oligodendrocytes will fail to produce myelin at an efficient rate to survive. With Dr. Yannan Chen's research it gave us insight on how it is possible to turn off ISR and effects of leaving ISR on. In the experiment they used a laboratory method called the Cre-lox system to delete the PERK gene within the oligodendrocyte lineage. By removing the gene, the cells became "blind" to the stress that was caused by misfolded proteins, and since they couldn't sense the stress, they never triggered the ISR allowing them to continue producing myelin at at efficient rate.
Over 1 million people in the US and ~2.9 million people worldwide suffer from multiple sclerosis, with primary ages being 20-50 years old, and 3x more likely to be developed in females then males. With the potential of having a treatment that could help activate myelin production to its max, it would be a very big breakthrough for modern medicine.
References
Chen, Y., Kunjamma, R. B., Lin, K., Kai, L., Dima, M., Bruce, K., ... & Popko, B. (2025). Integrated stress response inhibition prolongs the lifespan of a Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease mouse model by increasing oligodendrocyte survival. Nature Communications.
De Keersmaecker, A. V., van Doninck, E., Wens, I., El Ouaamari, Y., Popescu, V., Laureys, G., ... & Willekens, B. (2025). Recent advances in interventions targeting remyelination and a systematic review of remyelinating effects of approved disease-modifying treatments for multiple sclerosis.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12603786/
De Keersmaecker, A. V., van Doninck, E., Wens, I., El Ouaamari, Y., Popescu, V., Laureys, G., Cambron, M., D'Haeseleer, M., Willem, L., Derdelinckx, J., Reynders, T., & Willekens, B. (2025). Recent advances in interventions targeting remyelination and a systematic review of remyelinating effects of approved disease‐modifying treatments for multiple sclerosis.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10407711/
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