Emerging Biomarkers for Monitoring Remyelination in Multiple Sclerosis: Ahmed Abdelhak, MD

WATCH TIME: 5 minutes

"I think we demonstrated in a robust way that if you cause demyelination, neurofilament light (NfL) will go up, and if you remyelinate the axons, NfL levels will be lower."

At the recently concluded 2025 Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) Annual Meeting, held May 28-31, 2025, in Phoenix, the session titled “Promoting Remyelination in MS” provided attendees with a comprehensive overview of current scientific, clinical, and translational efforts aimed at restoring myelin integrity in multiple sclerosis (MS). Chaired by V. Wee Yong, PhD, FCAHS, FRSC, the session began with a review of remyelination biology, emphasizing key mechanisms that can be targeted therapeutically. Tanja Kuhlmann, MD, then expanded on this by discussing patterns and barriers of remyelination observed in MS pathology.

Following a brief break during the session, Peter Calabresi, MD, presented translational approaches, highlighting how laboratory findings are being integrated into clinical development pipelines. Concluding the session, Ahmed Abdelhak, MD, explored the role of emerging serum and imaging biomarkers, such as neurofilament light chain (NFL) and advanced MRI metrics, as tools to assess remyelination in clinical trials. In the talk, Abdelhak, assistant professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, highlighted the potential critical need for reliable, scalable outcome measures in this advancing field.

After the session at the meeting, Abdelhak sat down with NeurologyLive^® to further speak about the progress in the development of therapies that induce remyelination in patients with MS. During the interview, he detailed the use of visual evoked potentials as an established tool and discusses limitations in their scope, prompting exploration of serum-based biomarkers like NFL. Abdelhak also emphasized the contextual challenges in interpreting NFL because of its sensitivity to inflammatory activity. In addition, he noted that novel proteomic and imaging-based approaches are being validated to provide a more comprehensive assessment of remyelination in both clinical and preclinical settings.

Click here for more coverage of CMSC 2025.

REFERENCES
1. Abdelhak A. Emerging Serum and Imaging Biomarkers to Monitor Remyelination in MS. Presented at: 2025 CMSC Annual Meeting; May 28-31; Phoenix, AZ. Promoting Remyelination in MS.