Remyelination: Are Exosomes Containing microRNA the Answer? | Multiple Sclerosis Discovery Forum

Naturally produced exosomes with miRNA led to increased myelination in vitro and in vivo

Today’s treatments for multiple sclerosis aim squarely at the immune system, not the sheath of myelin that insulates and nourishes axons. Eventually, MS destroys that protective layer formed by oligodendrocytes for good. But that could soon change with a new therapeutic strategy to remyelinate axons, currently under investigation by Richard Kraig, M.D., Ph.D., at the University of Chicago, Illinois.

Kraig’s team showed that naturally produced nano-sized vesicles called exosomes packed with microRNA (miRNA) led to increased myelination in healthy rats and remyelination in an in vitro model of demyelination. Kraig presented the work at the 2013 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, California. At a press conference there dedicated to MS research, he called the tiny vesicles “Mother Nature’s way of healing the brain.”

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