CHAPTER 9: Emerging Drugs and Targets for Remyelination in Multiple Sclerosis

How might therapies promoting remyelination help people with multiple sclerosis (MS)? In this chapter we explain why remyelination may decrease neurodegeneration in MS, reducing neurological disability. We introduce some of the target pathways promoting remyelination in preclinical models, which are now giving us potential pro-remyelination therapies for humans that are in or near clinical trial. We also address some of the problems we are currently trying to solve in promoting remyelination in humans, including how to robustly measure remyelination in life so that our trials measure what they think they do, over a useful timescale to see a clinical effect, and the progress that has been made to find pro-remyelination therapies. We end with speculation as to future problems, improvements and potential solutions.