News

Wed, 23/08/2023
Neurology Webinar on human brain T cells in health and multiple sclerosis
Muenster. The SFB 128 is happy welcome Joost J.F.M. Smolders, MD, PhD , head of MS Center ErasMS and Neuroimmunology Brain (NIB) Research Group at the Department of Immunology of the Erasmus University Medical Center (Erasmus MC), as lecturer at the Muenster Neurology Webinar. His talk is entitled “Unique features of human brain T cells […]...more
Thu, 03/08/2023
Neurology Webinar – How much gut needs the brain
Muenster. In December 2023, Prof. Anne-Katrin Pröbstel, Head of the Interdisciplinary Autoimmune Clinic at the University Hospital of Basel, will visit Muenster to give insights into the microbiota-immune crosstalk in neuroonflammation. Her presentation – which ois part of the Muenster Neurology Webinar – will be live-streamed. Time: Wednesday, December 13, 5:15 p.m. Place: Online at […]...more
Thu, 02/02/2023
3rd Inflammation & Imaging Symposium in Münster, 11-13 September 2023
Application has opened! We cordially invite you to join this international conference and discuss the latest developments in research on inflammation and the imaging of the immune system with us. The symposium is organised by eight research networks from the University of Münster – CRU 342, CRC 1009, CRC 1450, CRC/TR 128, CRC/TR 332, InFlame, […]...more


Tue, 08/09/2020 | Study with identical twins shows that the early form of multiple sclerosis has a specific pattern

Happy about the new findings from the MS-TWIN study: PhD student Claudia Janoschka (right) and group leader Prof. Luise Klotz (Photo: Deiters-Keul)

The tremendous heterogeneity of the human population presents a major obstacle in understanding how autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS) contribute to variations in human peripheral immune signatures. To minimize heterogeneity, SFB researchers from Munich and Muenster made use of a unique cohort of 43 monozygotic twin pairs clinically discordant for MS and searched for disease-related peripheral immune signatures in a systems biology approach covering a broad range of adaptive and innate immune populations on the protein level. Results of their work were published in the latest issue of the prestigious journal PNAS.
Despite disease discordance, the immune signatures of MS-affected and unaffected cotwins were remarkably similar. Twinship alone contributed 56% of the immune variation, whereas MS explained 1 to 2% of the immune variance. Notably, distinct traits in CD4+ effector T cell subsets emerged when Lisa Ann Gerdes, Claudia Janoschka and colleagues focused on a subgroup of twins with signs of subclinical, prodromal MS in the clinically healthy cotwin. Some of these early-disease immune traits were confirmed in a second independent cohort of untreated early relapsing-remitting MS patients. Early involvement of effector T cell subsets thus points to a key role of T cells in MS disease initiation.

Adapted from.
Gerdes LA° Janoschka C°, Eveslage M, Mannig B, Wirth T, Schulte-Mecklenbeck A, Lauks S, Glau L, Gross CC, Tolosa E, Flierl-Hecht A, Ertl-Wagner B, Barkhof F, Meuth SG, Kümpfel T, Wiendl H°, Hohlfeld R*, Klotz L*. Immune signatures of prodromal multiple sclerosis in monozygotic twins. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 117(35):21546-21556. (°,*= equal contribution)