What if we could actually reverse the damage that MS causes, restoring function to those who have been living with the disease for years? MS occurs when the immune system attacks the myelin coating that insulates nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord; damage to nerve fibers—axons—also occurs, and underlies the progressive disability experienced by people with MS. The Nervous System Repair and Protection Initiative, funded through the Society’s Promise: 2010 Campaign, is bringing the dream of protecting and repairing brain tissue and restoring function within our grasp.
A specially convened National MS Society Task Force determined that the best way to speed up nerve tissue repair is to bring together experts in clinical trials and basic laboratory scientists to form partnerships. These teams could conduct all elements of the study from basic research to planning studies of neuroprotective drugs and repair strategies in people with MS.
Based on these recommendations, the Society awarded the largest grants ever made for research aimed at protecting and reversing neurological damage and restoring function in people with MS. Four teams in the U.S. and Europe are using $15.6 million to lay the groundwork for clinical trials by 2010. This funding level allows scientists to attract more “heads and hands” to the problem, and to utilize the best available technology and develop needed new technologies to achieve our goals.
The four teams:
- Dr. Peter A. Calabresi (Johns Hopkins University) and collaborators are searching for better ways to detect and quantify tissue injury in MS and testing agents that may protect the nervous system from further damage.
- Professor Charles ffrench-Constant (University of Cambridge, UK) and colleagues are focusing on restoring myelin by identifying and amplifying natural repair factors in the brain and by attempting to transplant replacement cells.
- Dr. Gavin Giovannoni (Queen Mary University of London, UK) and collaborators are attempting to turn cells into vehicles that will deliver repair molecules to sites of injury in the brain, and screening molecules for their protective properties as a prelude to clinical trials.
- Professor Ian D. Duncan (University of Wisconsin Madison) is leading a multidisciplinary team to develop better imaging technologies such as PET and MRI to visualize myelin and nerve fiber damage, and to detect its repair. They are also exploring techniques for transplanting cells to promote repair.
Our challenge is to ensure that these scientists get the funding to succeed. Support these efforts to make tissue repair and protection a reality.
Recent Progress
- Dr. Giovannoni’s team is already testing nerve-protecting compounds in two single therapy clinical trials in the United Kingdom. Lamotrigine (currently used to prevent seizures in people with epilepsy) is being tested to see if it can prevent or slow progressive shrinking of the brain (atrophy) in people with secondary-progressive MS. A large, multi-center study is ongoing to see if the active compound in cannabis, THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) can slow the progressive phase of MS.
- Dr. Calabresi’s team showed that changes seen in nerve fibers at the back of the eye using optical coherence tomography (OCT) echo more global damage in the brain, and may be a useful tool for measuring the success of treatments. Read more < link to news article from Oct. 18, 2007> about these findings.
- Dr. ffrench-Constant’s group has a system for growing brain tissues in the lab and is using it to identify factors that promote myelin repair. Monitoring genes during myelin repair showed that 55 that were turned on – two genes have been selected as the first to be tested for their potential for stimulating myelin repair in animal models.
- Dr. Duncan’s team showed that immature cells transplanted into the spinal cord of rats during relapse of the MS-like disease EAE were able to survive in that inflammatory environment. They also found that immature oligodendrocytes transplanted into mice born without myelin produced properly compacted myelin sheaths.
Read about other Society-supported research focusing on tissue repair in MS.