Study of the Mechanisms of Action of Cladribine in Multiple Sclerosis

Recent clinical trials have reported a remarkable therapeutic efficacy of cladribine tablets not only in the early and recurrent phases of the disease, but also in progressive multiple sclerosis. However, its role on the immune and nervous systems has hardly been studied, although these studies suggest that CoA may exert anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective actions. Thus, the objective is to better understand/describe how cladribine acts during MS and to demonstrate whether CoA: (1) is able to effectively modulate pro-inflammatory immune processes and (2) has powerful neuroprotective properties. Ultimately, it will provide proof of concept that cladribine can be used not only in the early but also in the progressive phase of MS. To address this hypothesis, the goal is to study the beneficial immunomodulatory/anti-inflammatory effects of cladribine on multiple sclerosis. The main objective of this project is therefore to study and thus better understand the immunomodulatory / anti-inflammatory effects of cladribine during multiple sclerosis. Most current and developing therapies targeting the immune system have no effect on the progressive phase of MS, during which neurodegeneration plays a predominant role. As mentioned above, the very promising results of clinical trials with cladribine tablets for the early and progressive phase of the disease have revealed immunomodulatory properties and suggested potential neuroprotective effects. It therefore plans to further dissect one of these two parameters by designing in vitro studies with peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from healthy donors and MS patients.