On the occasion of World Multiple Sclerosis day, on May 31st, the french magazine "Sciences et Avenir" dedicates an article to promising recent work from Catherine Lubetzki's team at the Brain and Spine Institute (ICM) in Paris.
Several studies from the team have shown the importance of the remyelination process in patient health state. In its most frequent form, multiple sclerosis is indeed charaterized by inflammatory bursts in the central nervous system (brain and spine), followed by respite periods during which myelin is partially rebuilt.
New imaging techniques developped at ICM, more precise than MRI, allowed to show that this reparation "potential" differs a lot among patients : by injecting a specific tracer that fixes on myelin, before performing a PET scan, the degree of myelin degradation can be measured.
You can find the complete article (in French) on the magazine website.