A demyelinating multiple sclerosis lesion: one phase in the progression of multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis is a degenerative disease that affects neurons in both the brain and spinal cord. The disease is characterized by the loss of the protective myelin sheath around neurons, followed by the formation of a succession of lesions of varying characteristics and severity.  The disease strikes all its sufferers in different ways, which makes it difficult to diagnose and extremely difficult to treat.  But underlying it all is a common set of mechanisms linked to various protein expression profiles.  Stanford University and University of Connecticut researchers profiled a library of lesion samples stored in the lab freezer and identified hundreds of proteins unique to each phase of the disease progression.

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