College of Arts & Sciences

Ishaan Bhatt

College of Arts & Sciences Biological Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Valerie Bracchi-Ricard Biology

Kayla Murphy Co-Mentor

Supra-spinal Effects of a TNFR2

Agonist in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis

(EAE)

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating autoimmune disease involving demyelination in the central nervous system that primarily affects females. MS symptoms include loss of vision, learning/memory deficits, chronic pain, and loss of motor function. Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is an animal model commonly used to study MS. EAE and MS are inflammatory diseases that produce inflammatory molecules called cytokines. Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF) is a cytokine known to be upregulated in inflamed nervous tissue. It is detrimental in its soluble form when it activates TNF receptor 1 (TNFR1). However, membrane bound TNF signals through TNFR2, which has neuroprotective and remyelinating properties. An agonist was developed to specifically activate TNFR2 since this receptor has been shown to support remyelination in the spinal cord. However, little research has investigated the role of TNFR2 in cortical and hippocampal brain regions, which are crucial in chronic pain perception, cognition, memory and learning, and affective disorders. Using biochemical and histological techniques, we will test the hypothesis that a TNFR2 therapy will alleviate disease progression and affect changes in synaptic proteins.