Researchers Discover Potential Driver of MS Disease Progression and Test Ways to Block It : National Multiple Sclerosis Society

Researchers Discover Potential Driver of MS Disease Progression and Test Ways to Block It

September 19, 2017

Scientists supported in part by the National MS Society have uncovered two related immune messenger proteins, and the genes that instruct them, which may be involved in driving progressive forms of MS. The proteins (macrophage migration inhibitory factor, or MIF, and D-dopachrome tautomerase, or D-DT) may increase inflammation in the brain and spinal cord. They found that the genes responsible tended to be more strongly expressed (active) in men. The study, led by researchers at Oregon Health and Sciences University and Yale University, may help explain why men tend to get more severe progression, and points to a possible target for the development of therapies to stop MS worsening. The teams are already testing compounds that may block this pathway.

The research involved people with MS and samples from the MS DNA/Bio-Repository Bank at the University of California, San Francisco, and the Rocky Mountain MS Tissue Bank, both of which are resources supported by the National MS Society.

Multiple sclerosis is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body. Symptoms range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis. The progress, severity and specific symptoms of MS in any one person cannot yet be predicted, but advances in research and treatment are leading to better understanding and moving us closer to a world free of MS. Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, with at least two to three times more women than men being diagnosed with the disease. MS affects more than 2.3 million people worldwide.

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