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The overarching theme of the ninth Congress of the European Academy of Neurology (1–4 July 2023) is ‘neurology beyond big data’. The Congress provides an opportunity for neurologists, neuroscientists and other experts to discuss how the power of neurological data might be harnessed to advance discovery and improve patient outcomes and brain health.
Data-driven approaches hold considerable promise for medical breakthroughs in the precision and cost-effectiveness of the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. The scientists and health care professionals who will be responsible for providing the evidence to support these approaches must also consider the ethical challenges involved in the care of people with intellectual impairments.
Digital technologies for data collection and remote monitoring can offer several indubitable advantages in neurological disorders. However, an equitable future for the use of digital technology in neurology will be possible only with global, collaborative and multidisciplinary planning that should be promptly prepared and implemented.
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a well-established approach for treating movement disorders such as Parkinson disease, dystonia and essential tremor. However, the outcomes are variable, and researchers are now exploring artificial intelligence-based strategies to help improve DBS procedures.
Artificial intelligence has emerged as a powerful tool for predicting protein structure. This technology is now being applied to improve our understanding of protein aggregation in neurodegenerative and other neurological disorders, and could potentially improve disease management by enabling precision medicine.
Artificial intelligence-based tools have the potential to transform health care, enabling faster and more accurate diagnosis, personalized treatment plans, new therapeutic approaches and effective disease monitoring. Artificial intelligence shows particular promise for the management of rare neurological disorders by augmenting knowledge and facilitating the sharing of expertise among physicians.
Growing evidence indicates a central role for meningeal inflammation in driving multiple sclerosis (MS) pathology. In this Review, the authors summarize current knowledge regarding structural, cellular and molecular changes to the meninges in MS and discuss the clinical and therapeutic implications.
Smouldering inflammation encompasses all non-relapsing aspects of inflammatory pathobiology in multiple sclerosis. Here, Bittner and colleagues describe the mechanisms that underlie CNS-compartmentalized smouldering inflammation and review evidence indicating that immunometabolic reprogramming driven by the CNS tissue microenvironment shapes these inflammatory responses. Potential treatments are also discussed.
Ditans are a recently developed drug class for the treatment of acute migraine. In this Review, the authors provide an overview of ditan development, from the initial rationale to the clinical studies that led to the recent FDA approval of the first ditan.
