Agent based modeling of the effects of potential treatments over the blood-brain barrier in multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous systemthat involves the destruction of the insulating sheathof axons, causing severe disabilities. Since the etiology of the disease is not yet fully understood, the use of noveltechniques that may help to understand the disease, to suggest potential therapies and to test the effects of candidatetreatments is highly advisable.To this endwe developed an agent based model that demonstrated its ability to reproduce the typical oscillatorybehavior observed in the most common form of multiple sclerosis, relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis. Themodel has then been used to test the potential beneficial effects of vitamin D over the disease.Many scientific studies underlined the importance of the blood–brain barrier and of the mechanisms that influenceits permeability on the development of the disease. In the present paper we further extend our previouslydevelopedmodel with amechanism that mimics the blood–brain barrier behavior. The goal of ourwork is to suggestthe best strategies to follow for developing new potential treatments that intervene in the blood–brainbarrier.Results suggest that the best treatments should potentially prevent the opening of the blood–brain barrier, astreatments that help in recovering the blood–brain barrier functionality could be less effective.