Genetics

Three studies sit on three links of the chain from genotype to metabolite to disease, and each reports the next join as absent. Schoeps and colleagues measure ten fatty acids in 277 young people with MS and find plasma propionate tracking relapses and lesions on both cohorts, while fiber intake tracks five other compounds and not propionate. Wirsching and colleagues find an ITGB5 variant setting spinal fluid natural killer T cell frequency in MS but not in other diagnoses, with no link to severity though the cell count has one. Böse and colleagues grow neurons from patients' urine cells and find respiratory and glycolytic reserve reduced.