Our incomplete understanding of the causes and pathways involved in the onset and progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) limits our ability to effectively treat this complex neurological disease. Recent studies explore the role of immune cells at different stages of MS and how they interact with cells of the central nervous system (CNS). The findings presented here begin to question the exclusivity of an antigen-specific cause and highlight how seemingly distinct immune cell types can share common functions that drive disease. Innovative techniques further expose new disease-associated immune cell populations and reinforce how environmental context is critical to their phenotype and subsequent role in disease. Importantly, the differentiation of immune cells into a pathogenic state is potentially reversible through therapeutic manipulation. As such, understanding the mechanisms that provide plasticity to causal cell types is likely key to uncoupling these disease processes and may identify novel therapeutic targets that replace the need for cell ablation.

我们对多发性硬化症 (MS) 的发病和进展所涉及的原因和途径的不完全理解限制了我们有效治疗这种复杂神经系统疾病的能力。最近的研究探讨了免疫细胞在 MS 不同阶段的作用以及它们如何与中枢神经系统 (CNS) 细胞相互作用。这里提出的研究结果开始质疑抗原特异性原因的排他性，并强调看似不同的免疫细胞类型如何共享驱动疾病的共同功能。创新技术进一步揭示了新的与疾病相关的免疫细胞群，并强化了环境背景对其表型和随后在疾病中的作用的重要性。重要的是，通过治疗操作，免疫细胞分化为致病状态可能是可逆的。