COLLABORATE El Meu Clínic . This link opens in a new tab.
Search
COLLABORATE El Meu Clínic . This link opens in a new tab.
Navigation thread
Clínic Barcelona

The study of the retina offers a noninvasive way to visualize the evolution of multiple sclerosis

Neurodegenerative diseases are chronic and still lacking an effective treatment, so they have become a growing concern in our aging society. The lack of therapies adds to the difficulty of studying the effect of new drugs on the brain, because it is not possible to perform a complete diagnosis and pathological study before the death of the patient. The Annals of Neurology published a paper showing that it is possible to monitor the evolution of MS through the retina. Dr. íñigo Gabilondo is the first author of the work, while the last one is Dr. Pablo Villoslada, head of Multiple Sclerosis, Pathogenesis and New Therapies Group at the IDIBAPS’ Neuroimmunology Program. The work was done in collaboration with the Department of Neurology and Ophthalmology at Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, which form the Visual Pathway Laboratory, funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III.

The eye is a window to the brain, as it is extended towards the retina through the optic nerve. The retina, being part of the brain, is also affected by neurodegenerative diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. Laser techniques for image analysis allow resolutions up to 1,000 times smaller than 1 mm, more than enough to analyze the nerves arriving to the eye through the optic nerve which measure one micron in diameter. The latest advances use spectroscopy techniques for molecular imaging that will allow to identify changes in the composition of neurons even before morphological changes appear.

The study published in Annals of Neurology combined Optical Coherence Tomography and magnetic resonance imaging in 100 patients with Multiple Sclerosis, at the time of inclusion in the study and one year later. The evolution of data obtained by imaging was related to clinical progression of patients to demonstrate that there is a degeneration of the visual pathway nerves representative of what happens inside the brain. In addition, degeneration of axons of neurons was independent of outbreaks suffered by patients, the acute and more obvious inflammatory stages of the disease which are not as much important on the disease progress.

This study applies these techniques to Multiple Sclerosis, but soon they will be applied to Parkinson's disease or REM sleep disorders, which are the earliest symptoms of a neurodegenerative disease known. The objective is to monitor the disease noninvasively from its earliest stages, and thus obtain information to predict the evolution of new cases. These techniques are highly valuable for testing the effect of new clinical approaches that seek to stop the progression of neurodegenerative diseases.

Article reference: Gabilondo I, Martínez-Lapiscina EH, Martínez-Heras E, Fraga-Pumar E, Llufriu S, Ortiz S, Bullich S, Sepulveda M, Falcon C, Berenguer J, Saiz A, Sanchez-Dalmau B, Villoslada P. Trans-synaptic axonal degeneration in the visual pathway in multiple sclerosis. Annals of Neurology. 2013 Oct 2. doi: 10.1002/ana.24030. [Epub ahead of print] Article in PubMed