Lalive Patrice

Biography

His group is interested in both fundamental and clinically-oriented research projects in inflammatory/demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), and in particular on the pathogenesis and regulation of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). His major interests are (i) the search for new biomarkers for MS inflammation and neurodegeneration, such as anti-myelin antibodies, interleukins and neurofilaments, and (ii) the identification of the mechanisms of action of current MS therapies, such as interferon (IFN)-beta, glatiramer acetate (GA) and natalizumab. In this context, they recently demonstrated that IFN-beta, a disease-modifying drug with strong anti-inflammatory properties, modulates the production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, indicating that IFN-beta may also contribute directly to neuroprotection in MS patients (J Neuroimmunol, 2008). Other studies from our group indicate that GA inhibits pathogenic human T cell differentiation (J Neuroimmunol, 2007) and affects human monocytes by triggering a bias toward a less inflammatory profile (Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2009).

Research Interest

Neurology