Recent findings suggest that oligodendroglia can myelinate axon-like artificial structures, opening an opportunity for high-throughput functional screening for potential drugs for demyelinating disorders, such as multiple sclerosis. Feng Mei and colleagues developed 96-well plates with conical micropillar arrays that enable automated screening for compounds that could promote remyelination. Mei et al. validated their method by testing 1,000 bioactive molecules and found that certain antimuscarinic compounds facilitated remyelination and oligodendrocyte differentiation, although the results need to be confirmed in vivo.
References
Mei, F. et al. Micropillar arrays as a high-throughput screening platform for therapeutics in multiple sclerosis. Nat. Med. 10.1038/nm.3618
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Rapid screening for remyelination-promoting drugs using micropillar arrays. Nat Rev Neurol 10, 428 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2014.137
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2014.137
