A bioinformatics approach to cuprizone model of multiple sclerosis: Focus on glial cells

Multiple sclerosis is a multifaceted demyelinating autoimmune disease primarily affecting myeline sheath in the central nervous system. There is currently no definitive treatment for this disease. Neuroinflammation is thought to be the main cause underlying the disease. Cuprizone is a copper-chelating chemical compound, and commonly used in experimental model of multiple sclerosis. Therefore, in this study it was aimed to investigate the changes in molecular pathways in glial cells induced by cuprizone demyelination model by using different methods.

Cuprizone-gene interaction analysis was done with The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database. The Gene Expression Omnibus database was used to access bioinformatics datasets. The gene expression data were analyzed to compare cuprizone fed and normal diet animal brain samples. Differentially expressed genes were determined by using bioinformatics tools. Pathway analysis was studied with Enrichr. The String Database was used to show protein-protein interactions network.

In this study, it has shown that the cuprizone model of multiple sclerosis mainly targets oligodendrocytes. However, microglia and astrocyte related signaling pathways are also affected by multiple sclerosis. Thus, combined therapeutic approaches are needed to multiple sclerosis treatment.

Keywords: Glial cells, Cuprizone, Demyelination, Multiple sclerosis, Bioinformatics databases