New insights into the role of APOE in multiple sclerosis

23. December 2015

Apolipoprotein E (APOE) represents the major genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, but its role in other neuropsychiatric diseases is less well established. In this study, performed in collaboration with researchers from Ruhr University Bochum, we investigated the role of APOE in a transgenic mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS). While our group had shown earlier that genetic variants in APOE do not significantly alter the risk for MS, they do appear to exert a modest effect in mice suffering from an experimental form of MS, highlighting – again – the challenges of translating results from animal models to the human condition. The study was published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation.