Intestinal flora and its pathogenic mechanism in multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune demyelinating disease of the central nervous system, the exact pathogenesis of MS is not clear at the moment. Central immune response disorder is one of the important mechanism of MS. Intestinal flora imbalance may induce local immune response, and later peripheral activated immune cells and their immune factors, with the blood circulation, travel through the blood-brain barrier to the center, resulting in abnormal central immune response. The intestinal flora can also affect the occurrence and development of MS by regulating the immune response of the central nervous system, regulating the metabolism, increasing the permeability of the intestinal barrier and destroying the blood-brain barrier. The present paper tends to review the action mechanism of intestinal flora on the process and pathogenesis of MS, in order to further understanding the pathogenesis of MS and seeking a new direction for the treatment. DOI: 10.11855/j.issn.0577-7402.2018.08.16