Contribution of peptides to multiple sclerosis research

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease associated with chronic inflammatory demyelination of the central nervous system in genetically susceptible individuals. Because of the disease complexity and heterogencity, its pathogenesis remains unknown despite extensive research efforts. and specific effective treatments have not yet been developed. Peptide-based research has been important in attempts to unravel particular aspects of this complex disease, including the characterization of the the different molecular mechanisms of MS, with the goal of providing useful products for immune-mediated therapies. In fact, in the past decade, peptide-based research has been predominant in research aimed to identity and/or develop target antigens as synthetic probes for specific biomakers as well as innovative immunomodulating therapics. This review presents an overview of the contributions of peptide science to MS research and discusses future directions of peptide-based investigations. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.