The researchers suggest that changes in naïve CD4-T-cell biology, particularly that of TCR and TLR signaling pathways, identify MS patients with a rapid conversion to secondary progression.
The researchers suggest that changes in naïve CD4-T-cell biology, particularly that of TCR and TLR signaling pathways, identify MS patients with a rapid conversion to secondary progression.
This is important because this identifies long-term disability in MS. In fact, certain proteins are in higher concentration on T cells from progressive MS patients that progress faster. What are these proteins doing you ask? That is not known as this time, however Toll-like receptors involved with microbe recognition and infections are important to the rate of progression. We know that blocking CD4 activity doesn’t stop progression, but the question is whether it changes the slope (rate of change). We expect to find this answer from the SP1 and tysabri trials.
Scientists recently uncovered a key finding that CD4 T cells are not involved with Multiple Sclerosis progression after recent trials revealed that a depleting CD4-specific antibody failed to affect MS. The question is: did the depleting CD4 specific antibody fail to affect MS, or was the experimental design flawed? Essentially, immunologists claim that CD4 cells are at the center of the immunological research world simply because they are involved with other aspects of immune responses in order to be able to do what they do.
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