Immunological markers in multiple sclerosis: tackling the missing elements

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex disease in which several pathophysiological mechanisms are involved: inflammation, demyelination, axonal damage and repairing. Further complicating the picture, such processes are variably represented in MS patient populations, thus accounting for the heterogeneity in phenotypic expression of the disease, its prognosis and response to therapies. In the last decade a huge effort has been made in the attempt to "capture" the gold fish, i. e., biological markers either specific for the disease and/or capable to predict, in newly diagnosed MS patients, disease course and response to therapy. Moreover, these biomarkers would be extremely useful in the development of new process-specific therapies. Unfortunately such markers are far from being "fished", but recent studies have pointed out new interesting candidates, driving new energies and hopes in the MS research community. In this review we briefly discuss the latest news on immune markers in MS.