The first article from the German–Danish collaboration project “Kynurenine Pathway in MS (KP-MS)”, funded by the RiGra 2023 programme, has been published in Neurology® Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation.

You can find a detailed description of the project here .

Key findings

The published study presents a cross-sectional analysis including over 350 persons with MS and 100 healthy individuals. The authors:

• confirm differences in the concentrations of most kynurenine pathway metabolites between persons with MS and healthy individuals;
• identify two distinct kynurenine pathway metabolite patterns in persons with MS, referred to as NeuroTox and NeuroPro;
• demonstrate that disease severity (EDSS), age, body composition, and physical fitness correlate with one or both of these patterns.

Next steps

The cross-sectional analysis provides the foundation for the ongoing longitudinal analysis, in which four MS exercise cohorts are followed up to investigate the chronic modulation of kynurenine pathway patterns. These cohorts participate in different exercise modalities conducted over periods ranging from three to 24 weeks.

Read the full paper here .

Schematic overview of the kynurenine pathway and its proposed modulation by physical exercise, highlighting neurotoxic and neuroprotective metabolite patterns.