Immunity, metabolism and neurodegeneration

Project Sponsor, MD, PhD, MCU-PH,, Team Leader, PI, Sorbonne Université, AP-HP

PhD, Team Leader, PI, INSERM

Team presentation

The team aims to elucidate the role of innate and adaptive immune cells in myelin destruction and repair in multiple sclerosis, target innate immunity as therapeutic mediators in neurometabolic diseases, and decipher the code to control macrophage activation states.

The team’s previous work has shown that oligodendrocyte precursors are influenced by neuronal activity and signals from immune cells, underscoring the importance of these interactions in remyelination.

The Immunity, metabolism and neurodegeneration Team projects have 3 main objectives:

Study the role of:
- neuronal activity,
- immune cells in oligodendrocyte differentiation and myelin regeneration, and understand the effects of these signals on differentiation of human myelinating cells,
Develop innovative tools to identify and validate the therapeutic value of new promyelinizing molecules.

Main publications

Maas DA, Eijsink VD, Spoelder M, van Hulten JA, De Weerd P, Homberg JR, Vallès A, Nait-Oumesmar B*, Martens GJM* (2020) Interneuron hypomyelination is associated with cognitive inflexibility in a rat model of schizophrenia. Nat Commun 11(1):2329. *Equally contributed
Chew LJ, Ming X, McEllin B, Dupree J, Hong E, Catron M, Fauveau M, Nait-Oumesmar B, Gallo V (2019) Sox17 Regulates a Program of Oligodendrocyte Progenitor Cell Expansion and Differentiation during Development and Repair. Cell Rep 29(10):3173 3186.
Garcia-Diaz B, Bachelin C, Coulpier F, Gerschenfeld G, Deboux C, Zujovic V, Charnay P, Topilko P, Baron-Van Evercooren A (2019) Blood vessels guide Schwann cell migration in the adult demyelinated CNS through Eph/ephrin signaling. Acta Neuropathol. 138(3):457-476.
Maglorius Renkilaraj MRL, Baudouin L, Wells CM, Doulazmi M, Wehrlé R, Cannaya V, Bachelin C, Barnier JV, Jia Z, Nait Oumesmar B, Dusart I, Bouslama-Oueghlani L (2017) The intellectual disability protein PAK3 regulates oligodendrocyte precursor cell differentiation. Neurobiol Dis. 98:137-148.
El Behi M.*, Sanson C.*, Bachelin C., Guillot-Noël L., Fransson J., Stankoff B., Maillart E., Sarrazin N., Guillemot V., Abdi H., Cournu-Rebeix I.**, Fontaine B.**, Zujovic V.** (2015) Adaptive human immunity drives remyelination in a mouse model of demyelination. Brain 140(4):967-98.
*Equally contributed

Team members

Violetta ZUJOVIC