Remyelination therapy for multiple sclerosis―Current status and future perspectives

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system affecting more than two millions people worldwide. Demyelination is a hallmark of MS pathology and remyelination failure is often evident in MS patients. Several candidate remyelination therapies inducing oligodendrocyte maturation are being clinically developed, however the efficacy of these therapies may be compromised by the intrinsic failure in preserved oligodendrocyte precursor cells in MS lesions, a possible species differences between experimental animals and human, and the lack of clinically feasible methods to detect subclinical remyelination. Possible adverse events caused by induced hypermyelination should also be taken into account. In this review, the current status and future perspectives of remyelination medicines in MS will be discussed.