High distinction for the Göttingen researcher: Prof. Alexander Flügel from the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) received the Sobek Prize for his groundbreaking research on multiple sclerosis (MS) – from the hands of Dr. Hans J. Reiter from the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science.
© AMSEL/Frank Eppler/nh
A researcher from Göttingen is working on direct insights into the development of multiple sclerosis. This could lead to a new therapy.
Göttingen – Multiple sclerosis – MS for short – is considered the disease with 1000 faces, it is unpredictable, sometimes standing still or rapidly progressing – with dire consequences for those affected. The fatal foci of inflammation in the central nervous system (CNS) that are characteristic of MS can now be easily visualized and identified.
But direct insights into the focus of inflammation and what is happening were not possible for a long time. The Göttingen researcher Alexander Flügel has been working on it for many years.
Today he can directly observe what is happening at the sites of inflammation in the CNS and even the development of MS. This leads to a better understanding of the disease. This is made possible by a special microscopy technique that he and his team have optimized. Results from this research could also be useful for people with MS. There are about 2.5 million of them worldwide.
The findings of Alexander Flügel, who has been Professor of Neuroimmunology and Director of the Institute for Neuroimmunology and Multiple Sclerosis Research at the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) since 2008, lead to a new perspective on the chronic inflammatory disease MS: multiple sclerosis must be viewed as systemic process and not just as an immune reaction limited to the central nervous system, say the jurors from the Sobek Foundation, who have now crowned the man from Göttingen with an important prize. Flugel’s research results offer “the potential to define the stages of disease processes in a more differentiated manner and thus to influence them therapeutically more efficiently,” the experts on the Sobek Foundation jury continued. The has now awarded the UMG professor with Europe’s largest research prize in the field of multiple sclerosis basic research, endowed with 100,000 euros.
The groundbreaking method for intravital microscopy developed by Flügel created the conditions for the direct observation of processes in the CNS. To do this, he labeled antigen-specific T cells with a green fluorescent protein in order to make them visible in the living organism as they enter the CNS.
In combination with 2-photon microscopy, he succeeded for the first time in depicting the navigation patterns of T cells up to crossing the blood-brain barrier in a living model. In this way, Flügel was able to characterize the movement of pathogenic T cells along the meninges and the molecular rules behind this disease-relevant “T cell traffic”.
His discovery that auto-aggressive T-cells, which are directed against their own body, can maneuver almost effortlessly through the dense nerve tissue until they encounter local macrophages (large cells of the immune system) and are activated by them is also astonishing. This leads to an immunological chain reaction that marks the actual beginning of the disease. His method thus allows a direct view of what is happening at the sites of inflammation in the CNS.
The head of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry for Science, Research and the Arts, Hans J. Reiter, praised Flügel’s achievements at the award ceremony with great words: “Your work is an important piece of the puzzle for identifying the disease multiple sclerosis, its development and its mechanisms and to understand it.” Reiter even says: “Thanks to your research, this disease will hopefully one day be curable.”
This is also the motivation for Alexander Flügel, who, with his team and the findings from basic research, wants to advance application research and ultimately the transformation into clinical work – i.e. diagnostics and therapy, i.e. treatment. (Thomas Copytz)
About the person: Prof. Dr. Alexander Wing
Prof. Dr. Alexander Wing was born in Erlangen in 1965, studied medicine in Munich and received his doctorate there in physical chemistry and cell biology with distinction. From 1994, his focus became neuroimmunology at the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology. After two clinical years, he switched completely to basic research and headed the laboratory for cellular and molecular neuroimmunology in Martinsried. Since 2008 he has been Director of the Institute for Neuroimmunology and MS Research at the University Hospital in Göttingen. He publishes his work in renowned international journals and is involved at management level in scientific committees throughout Europe. The European Research Council (ERC) has been funding its research on multiple sclerosis with an Advanced Grant since 2021. In addition, Flügel received strong research funding and is integrated into numerous joint projects. (tko)
Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) – still unclear origin and an interaction of many factors
The cause of MS is not (yet) clear. A bundle of causes is suspected. Several conditions seem to have to come together in order for MS to develop. The exact interaction of these factors is not sufficiently known. The body’s defense system, the immune system, plays a central role in this. The immune system protects against pathogens by rendering them harmless once they enter the body. In MS, part of this defense mechanism appears to be misprogrammed, meaning it is directed against one’s own healthy body. A malfunction in the immune system also leads to the formation of defense elements (cells and proteins/antibodies, inflammatory substances) that can cause damage and disorders to the myelin, the nerve cells and their nerve fibers.
An involvement of genetic factors cannot be ruled out either and is being intensively researched. This does not mean, however, that there is a direct inheritance of the disease – what is inherited is rather a “tendency” to possibly get the disease, a predisposition. The influence of environmental factors such as childhood infections, as well as other aspects such as vitamin D and diet are also suspected to be potential factors that can increase such a tendency. Autoimmune disease is often referred to in connection with MS. The immune system is ascribed a key role in the development and development of MS. (tko with dmsg)