GeNeuro, a biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and the severe neuro-psychiatric consequences of COVID-19 (post-COVID or long COVID), has published, in collaboration with the Heinrich-Heine University in Düsseldorf, results from their joint research on the role of HERV-W in MS in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
HERV-W ENV protein exposure leads to an activation of astroglial cells, which is amplified by microglia.
Previous studies by Prof. Patrick Küry's team were able to demonstrate a possible influence of HERV-W on neurodegeneration and on the reduction of the regeneration capacity —two processes that are not addressed by approved drugs to treat MS. The new findings by this team resulted from the use of a novel mouse model that mimics the expression of HERV-W in the central nervous system .
The research has now been able to prove that W-Env is indeed involved in important MS sub-processes in vivo: damage to theIn addition, the occurrence of aggressive microglial cells was confirmed and, surprisingly, the generation of neurotoxic astrocytes was revealed. This is a widespread glial cell population that is naturally involved in many physiological functions, but which, as a result of the presence of W-Env in the brain, now appears to acquire a primarily neurotoxic character.
"Our study shows that the presence of W-Env in the brains of MS patients appears to generate a toxic environment. It cannot be determined from this data whether this actually initiates the MS disease process, because the model we used is not suitable for this.
In addition to MS, GeNeuro is also testing Temelimab in a Phase II clinical trial in long COVID patients, as activation of W-Env is measured in the blood of affected patients, which may explain some of the neurological deficits suffered by these patients.
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