Journal
NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL
Volume 15, Issue -, Pages 780-788Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2017.06.028
Keywords
Multiple sclerosis; Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance spectroscopy; Axonopathy; White matter
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Funding
- Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke [Z01 NS003119]
- NINDS Competitive Intramural Graduate Fellowship award
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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a pathologically complex CNS disease: inflammation, demyelination, and neuroaxonal degeneration occur concurrently and may depend on one another. Current therapies are aimed at the immunemediated, inflammatory destruction of myelin, whereas axonal degeneration is ongoing and not specifically targeted. Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance spectroscopy can measure the diffusivity of metabolites in vivo, such as the axonal/neuronal constituent N-acetylaspartate, allowing compartment-specific assessment of disease-related changes. Previously, we found significantly lower N-acetylaspartate diffusivity in people with MS compared to healthy controls (Wood et al., 2012) suggesting that this technique can measure axonal degeneration and could be useful in developing neuroprotective agents. In this longitudinal study, we found that Nacetylaspartate diffusivity decreased by 8.3% (p < 0.05) over 6 months in participants who were experiencing clinical or MRI evidence of inflammatory activity (n = 13), whereas there was no significant change in Nacetylaspartate diffusivity in the context of clinical and radiological stability (n = 6). As N-acetylaspartate diffusivity measurements are thought to more specifically reflect the intra-axonal space, these data suggest that N-acetylaspartate diffusivity can report on axonal health on the background of multiple pathological processes in MS, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally.
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