About the Authors

David Kremer

Contributed equally to this work with: David Kremer, Qiao-Ling Cui

david.kremer81@gmail.com

Affiliation Department of Neurology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany

Qiao-Ling Cui

Contributed equally to this work with: David Kremer, Qiao-Ling Cui

Affiliation Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Peter Göttle

Affiliation Department of Neurology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany

Tanja Kuhlmann

Affiliation Institute of Neuropathology, University Hospital Münster, Münster, Germany

Hans-Peter Hartung

Affiliation Department of Neurology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany

Jack Antel

Affiliation Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Patrick Küry

Affiliation Department of Neurology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany

Competing Interests

DK received compensation for consultancy and speaking from Grifols. QLC claims no conflict of interest. PG claims no conflict of interest. TK received compensation for consultancy from Genzyme and for lectures from Novartis, TEVA Canada and Biogen-Idec. HPH received compensation for consultancy and speaking from Biogen-Idec, Genzyme, Merck-Serono, Roche, Teva, and Novartis. JA received compensation for consultancy or speaking from Biogen-Idec, Genzyme, and Novartis and for serving as Editor for Americas, Multiple Sclerosis Journal. PK received compensation for consultancy and/or speaking from Novartis, Baxter, GeNeuro and Biogen-Idec. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: DK QLC PG TK HPH JA PK. Performed the experiments: DK QLC PG TK. Analyzed the data: DK QLC PG TK. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: QLC JA TK. Wrote the paper: DK QLC PG TK HPH JA PK.