Professors Tobias Derfuss, Christian Münz, and Burkhard Becher have received the Swiss National Foundation (SNF) Sinergia Grant for their research proposal on the role of B cells and EBV infection on Multiple Sclerosis. The interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Basel/University Hospital Basel and the Institute of Experimental Immunology Zurich, aim to investigate the mechanism by which Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) infection on B cells contributes to the formation of inflammatory lesions in the central nervous system (CNS) that cause symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
The interdisciplinary team will use a systematic approach to study infected and non-infected B cells from MS patients and conduct hypothesis-driven experiments using a preclinical model with reconstituted human immune systems (humanized mice). The experiments seek to answer questions about the effects of EBV infection on the phenotype and function of circulating B cells, the impact on the response of autoreactive B cells when they encounter self-antigens, and if such virus-specific, infected or autoreactive B cells present myelin antigens to T cells to promote CNS autoimmunity.
This research, made possible by the Sinergia grant, will promote interdisciplinary collaboration and could lead to a better understanding of the causes of MS, potentially leading to new treatment options.
