Strategies for myelin regeneration: lessons learned from development

Myelin regeneration is indispensably important for patients suffering from several central nervous system (CNS) disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and spinal cord injury (SCI), because it is not only essential for restoring neurophysiology, but also protects denuded axons for secondary degeneration. Understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying remyelination is critical for the development of remyelination-specific therapeutic approaches. As remyelination shares certain common mechanisms with developmental myelination, knowledge from study of developmental myelination contributes greatly to emerging myelin regeneration therapies, best evidenced as the recently developed human anti-Nogo receptor interacting protein-1 (LINGO-1) monoclonal antibodies to treat MS patients in clinical trials.