Research supervised by Tom Gillingwater and Helena Chaytow has found that the CCL2-CCR2 axis plays a significant role in skeletal muscle pathology of motor neuron disease (also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS). In this study, led by visiting academic and clinical fellow Bernát Nógrádi, the team found that immune cells invade skeletal muscle of patients and animal models of ALS. They identified the chemokine CCL2 and its receptor CCR2 as drivers of this immune process. Importantly, they showed that blocking the interaction between CCL2 and CCR2 can prevent immune cell invasion and protect the neuromuscular junction. This connection between the motor neuron and the muscle is a critical point that fails in ALS, and so these experiments offer a promising direction for future therapies.The paper can be found here: doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62351-3 Publication date 06 Aug, 2025
