The Daily Bulletin Archive

Please join the Chemistry and Physics departments for the seminar "Cholesterol Metabolism and Multiple Sclerosis Disease Progression," presented by Murali Ramanathan, professor of pharmaceutical sciences and neurology, and director of the laboratory for multiple sclerosis neuroscience at the University at Buffalo, on Thursday, October 4, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in Science and Mathematics Complex 173.

Abstract
Despite the availability of immunomodulatory disease-modifying therapies, disease progression remains a significant problem in multiple sclerosis (MS), an inflammatory, demyelinating, and neurodegenerative disorder of the central nervous system. The available treatments reduce the frequency of relapses but do not halt the neurodegenerative processes that cause brain atrophy and disability progression.

Metabolic pathways generate the energy and provide the building blocks for the cell and are critically important for immune responses and neuronal functions in the central nervous system (CNS). There is considerable evidence indicating a pleiotropic role for cholesterol metabolism in CNS homeostasis, immune responses, and neurodegenerative processes. Indeed, the brain represents about 2 percent of body weight but accounts for about 25 percent of the body’s cholesterol. Approximately 70 percent of brain cholesterol is in myelin, which is damaged in MS. The implications of the cholesterol pathways for MS have not been systematically investigated. In this talk, I will summarize our clinical research on the role of cholesterol biomarkers and metabolites in the MS disease process.