100 MS patients who donated their brains after death. The investigators found that 12 of the brains did not have white matter demyelination.
While alive, MRI brain scans of those 12 patients were indistinguishable from those with traditional MS, the study authors said. That’s because part of the neurons was swollen in those 12 patients and looked like typical MS lesions caused by white matter myelin loss. Diagnosis of MCMS was only possible after death.
The findings, published online in The Lancet Neurology, show that neuron loss and demyelination can occur independently in MS. This highlights the need for more sensitive MRI scans, according to the researchers.
“This study opens up a new arena in MS research. It is the first to provide pathological evidence that neuronal degeneration can occur without white matter myelin loss in the brains of patients with the disease,” said team leader
Bruce Trapp. He is chair of the Lerner Research Institute department of neurosciences at the Cleveland Clinic.
“This information highlights the need for combination therapies to