The use of flow cytometry to assess a novel drug efficacy in multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Applying different technologies to monitor disease activity and treatment efficacy are essential in a complex disease such as multiple sclerosis. Combining current assays with flow cytometry could create a powerful tool for such analyses. The cell surface expression level of CD74, the MHC class II invariant chain, is a potential disease biomarker that could be monitored by FACS analysis in order to assess disease progression and the clinical efficacy of partial MHC class II constructs in treating MS. These constructs, which can bind to and down-regulate CD74 cell-surface expression on monocytes and inhibit macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) effects, can reverse clinical and histological signs of EAE. These properties of partial class II constructs are highly compatible with a flow cytometry approach for monitoring CD74 expression as a possible biomarker for disease activity/progression and as a treatment response marker.

Freecyto: Quantized Flow Cytometry Analysis for the Web

“…cancer promoted, immune-skewing, etc. [8][9][10][11] , testing therapeutic efficacy of a treatment 12 , and, more recently, gene-editing detection workflows 13 . A common experimental setup in biomedicine relies on being able to identify specific changes between a control and an experimental cell population.…”