Functional implications of focal white matter lesions on neuronal circuits

多发性硬化症（MS）和其他神经退行性疾病，如痴呆症，阿尔茨海默氏症和帕金森氏症对人们的生活和社会有很大的影响。目前还没有完全有效的治疗方法来阻止这些疾病的发展。人类的大脑分为两个相等的部分：灰色和白色物质。大多数关于神经退行性疾病的研究都集中在包含神经元的大脑灰质上，但忽略了白色物质的作用。新的研究表明，大脑白色物质内的病变发生在神经退行性疾病中。这些病变的数量与思维和运动问题有关。重要的是，这些病变可以在人们出现任何症状之前出现，表明这些病变可能在疾病进展中发挥作用。MS的特征是大脑中的白色物质病变，从MS研究中我们知道，白色物质病变可以修复，这使得症状完全恢复。这是因为在我们的大脑中，我们有专门的干细胞可以修复白色病变。虽然白色物质损伤可以在MS中修复，但这种再生过程最终失败，随着年龄的增长更是如此。修复白色病变的失败可能导致神经元的损失（神经变性），持续的大脑炎症和残疾。大脑中的炎症是一个低水平和持续的过程，在神经变性疾病和MS中很常见。我们早期的动物研究结果表明，修复白色病变减少了大脑灰质和白色物质的炎症。看来白色病变的修复失败可能导致了持续的脑部炎症。我们的数据表明，大脑中的炎症和神经元的变化是触发白色修复所必需的。这表明我们需要了解炎症、神经元和白色病变如何相互作用，以便开发有效的治疗方法，因为只针对一个部分，如灰质或免疫系统，可能不足以防止进一步的损害。我们的研究旨在通过研究白色病变如何影响大脑功能，灰质炎症以及白色病变的修复如何调节来填补这一知识空白。我们希望更多地了解神经退行性疾病，以及修复白色物质病变是否可以减少大脑炎症，这可能导致神经元的损失。这项研究可能会导致新的治疗方法的发展，重点是修复大脑的白色物质，以保护大脑功能。最终，我们的目标是减轻这些疾病对个人、家庭和整个社会的负担。

Multiple sclerosis (MS) and other neurodegenerative disorders like dementia, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's disease have a large impact on people's lives and society. There are no fully effective treatments available to stop these diseases from progressing.The human brain is divided into two equal halves: grey and white matter. Most of the research on neurodegenerative disorders has focused on the grey matter of the brain, which contains the neurons, but has overlooked the role of the white matter. New research is showing that lesions within the brain's white matter occur in neurodegenerative disorders. The number of these lesions is linked to problems with thinking and movement. Importantly, these lesions can appear before people experience any symptoms, indicating that these lesions may have a role to play in the disease progression.MS is characterised by white matter lesions in the brain, and from MS research we know that white matter lesions can be repaired, which allows for full symptomatic recovery. This is because in our brain we have specialised stem cells that can repair white matter lesions. Although white matter lesions can be repaired in MS, this regeneration process eventually fails, more so as we age. The failure of repairing white matter lesions can lead the loss of neurons (neurodegeneration), ongoing brain inflammation, and disability.Inflammation in the brain, which is a low-level and ongoing process, is common in both neurodegenerative conditions and MS. Our early results from animal studies suggest that repairing white matter lesions reduces inflammation in both the grey and white matter of the brain. It seems that the failure to repair white matter lesions properly may be causing the ongoing brain inflammation. Our data show that inflammation in the brain and changes in neurons are necessary to trigger white matter repair. This suggests that we need to understand how inflammation, neurons, and white matter lesions interact in order to develop effective treatments, as targeting only one part, like the grey matter or the immune system, may not be enough to prevent further damage.Our research aims to fill this knowledge gap by studying how white matter lesions affect brain function, grey matter inflammation and how repair of white matter lesions is regulated. We hope to learn more about neurodegenerative diseases and whether repairing white matter lesions can reduce brain inflammation, which may be causing the loss of neurons. This research could lead to the development of new treatments that focus on repairing the brain's white matter to preserve brain function. Ultimately, our goal is to reduce the burden of these diseases on individuals, families, and society as a whole.