HILBERRY
THEATRE
2012-13 SEASON

www.hilberry.com

Leading the way
in the lab

WSU researchers
make progress
toward new
MS treatment

By Phillip Van Hulle

October 26 - January 17

By William Shakespeare

The rapid ascent of the
powerful Othello and his
breathtaking whirlwind
marriage to the beautiful
Desdemona is thrilling to watch,
but it fractures the jealous lago.
We see him fluctuate easily
between the cold-blooded
plotting of mayhem and
destruction, and the reassuring,
"trust me, I love you." By the
end, Othello is stripped raw,
his emotions exposed and his
betrayal complete.

November 16 - February 9

By Ann-Marie MacDonald

Othello and Romeo & Juliet:
comedies?! Absolutely. Take one
mousy professor, suffering from
unrequited love and trying to
prove Shakespeare had prepared
different, comic endings for two
of his most famous plays. Stir in
an intense time warp through a
wastebasket, mistaken identities,
passionate seductions, and a few
swordfights. Bake until golden-
hued. Decorate with a doomed
turtle. Laugh until your breath is
taken away.

Wayne State University School
of Medicine researchers,
working with colleagues in
Canada, have found that one
or more substances produced
by a type of immune cell in
people with multiple sclerosis
may play a role in the disease's
progression. The finding could
lead to new targeted therapies
for MS treatment.

Robert Lisak, M.D., lead author
of the study and WSU professor
of Neurology, says B cells
are a subset of lymphocytes
(a type of circulating white
blood cell) that mature to
become plasma cells and
produce immunoglobulins,
the proteins in the body that
are antibodies. The B cells
appear to have other functions,
including helping regulate
other lymphocytes, particularly
T cells, and helping maintain
normal immune function when
healthy.

In patients with MS, the B cells
appear to attack the brain and
spinal cord, possibly because
there are substances produced
in the nervous system and
the meninges — the covering
of the brain and spinal cord
— that attract them. Once
within the meninges or central
nervous system, Lisak says,
the activated B cells secrete
one or more substances
that do not seem to be
immunoglobulins, but that
damage oligodendrocytes, the
cells that produce a protective
substance called myelin.

The B cells appear to be more
active in patients with MS,
which may explain why they
produce these toxic substances
and partially why they are
attracted to the meninges and
the nervous system.

The brain, for the
most part, can
be divided into
gray and white
areas. Neurons
are located in the
gray area, and the
white parts are
where neurons
send their
axons — similar
to electrical
cables carrying
messages — to
communicate
with other
neurons and
bring messages
from the brain
to muscles. The
white parts of
the brain are
white because a
cell type called
oligodendrocytes
makes a
cholesterol-rich
membrane called myelin that
coats the axons. The myelin's
function is to insulate the
axons, akin to the plastic
coating on an electrical
cable. In addition, the myelin
speeds communication
along axons and makes that
communication more reliable.
When the myelin coating is
attacked and degraded, the
impulses — the messages
from the brain to other parts
of the body — can "leak" and
be derailed from their target.
Oligodendrocytes also seem to
have other activities that are
important to nerve cells and
their axons.

The researchers took B cells
from the blood of seven
patients with relapsing-
remitting MS and from four
healthy patients. They grew
the cells in a medium, and
after removing the cells from
the culture collected material
produced by the cells. After
adding the material produced
by the B cells to the brain
cells of rats, including the
cells that produce myelin, the
scientists found significantly
more oligodendrocytes died
when compared to material

Robert Lisak, M.D.

produced by the B cells from
the healthy control group. The
team also found differences in
other brain cells that interact
with oligodendrocytes in the
brain.

"We think that this is a very
significant finding, particularly
for the damage to the cerebral
cortex seen in patients with
MS, since those areas seem
to be damaged by material
spreading into the brain from
the meninges, which are rich
in B cells adjacent to the areas
of brain damage," Dr. Lisak
says.

Lisak joined the neurology
faculty at the University of
Pennsylvania as an assistant
professor in 1972. In 1987 he
joined Wayne State University
as professor and chair of
neurology and served in this
role for 25 years, in addition
to serving as neurologist-in-
chief of the Detroit Medical
Center until 2011 and chief of
neurology until 2012. He also
is a professor of immunology
and microbiology. III

Van Halle is an information
officer in the School of Medicine,