The immunopathology of advanced multiple sclerosis

We recently analyzed a large cohort of multiple sclerosis (MS) autopsy cases of the Netherlands Brain Bank (NBB) and showed that 57% of the lesion in advanced MS is active (containing activated microglia/macrophages). These active lesions correlated with disease severity and differed between males and female MS patients.1 Already in normal appearing white matter microglia show early signs of demyelination.5 T cells are also frequently present in advanced stages of MS and have a tissue resident memory (Trm) phenotype, are more frequently CD8+ then CD4+, are located perivascular, enriched in active and mixed active/inactive MS lesions and correlated with lesion activity, lesion load and disease severity.2-4 Like Trm cells, B cells are located perivascular and were also enriched in active MS lesions but in lower numbers and a proportion of the MS patients had almost no detectable B cells in the regions analyzed. MS patients with limited presence of B cells had less severe MS, and less active and mixed active /inactive lesions. We conclude that advanced MS is characterize by a high innate and adaptive immune activity which is heterogeneous and relates to the clinical disease course.