Computational modeling of brain pathologies: the case of multiple sclerosis

• Published in: Briefings in bioinformatics Vol. 19; no. 2; pp. 318 - 324
• Main Authors: Pappalardo, Francesco, Rajput, Abdul-Mateen, Motta, Santo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Oxford University Press 01-03-2018; Oxford Publishing Limited (England)
• Subjects: Animals; Brain; Brain Diseases - pathology; Central nervous system; Complexity; Computational neuroscience; Computer Simulation; Humans; Models, Biological; Multiple sclerosis; Multiple Sclerosis - pathology; Neurological diseases; systems biology; computational models; immune system; vaccine; artificial intelligence; bioinformatics
• ISSN: 1467-5463; 1477-4054
• DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbw123

Abstract
The central nervous system is the most complex network of the human body. The existence and functionality of a large number of molecular species in human brain are still ambiguous and mostly unknown, thus posing a challenge to Science and Medicine. Neurological diseases inherit the same level of complexity, making effective treatments difficult to be found. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a major neurological disease that causes severe inabilities and also a significant social burden on health care system: between 2 and 2.5 million people are affected by it, and the cost associated with it is significantly higher as compared with other neurological diseases because of the chronic nature of the disease and to the partial efficacy of current therapies. Despite difficulties in understanding and treating MS, many computational models have been developed to help neurologists. In the present work, we briefly review the main characteristics of MS and present a selection criteria of modeling approaches.