World MS Day: £1.2 million invested in global effort to stop multiple sclerosis

£1.2 million will be invested in new multiple sclerosis research projects – including three pioneering studies in the UK – as part of a renewed global effort to stop the condition.

Announced on World MS Day (30 May) – which this year celebrates global solidarity in the MS community – the International Progressive MS Alliance (Alliance) will share the funds between researchers around the world through 19 Research Challenge Awards.

Each winning project shares a united goal of discovering what causes MS to progress. By developing a clear understanding of what leads to MS progression, it is hoped this funding will speed up the development of much-needed new treatments for the condition.

Dr Clare Walton, Head of Research at the MS Society – a funding Alliance member – said: “More than 130,000 people in the UK and 2.8 million worldwide live with MS. Thanks to research, we already have over a dozen licensed treatments for people with the relapsing form of MS, and some emerging for early active progressive MS. But too many people still don’t have any treatment to help them.

“We believe we can stop MS. And by finding out what drives MS progression, these projects will bring us one step closer to finding treatments for everyone.”

Following a worldwide call for proposals, the Alliance has announced it will fund 19 new research projects dedicated to discovering what causes MS progression. The selected research projects will each be awarded up to £65,000 to complete their work.

Professor David Baker, from Queen Mary University of London, is one of three UK researchers who have been awarded funding. His innovative project will explore how to protect nerve cells from becoming dangerously over-excited. Over-excited nerve cells can die, and nerve cell death plays a big part in MS progression.

Professor Baker explains: “We’ve developed a chemical that we believe can help calm over-excited cells and protect them from exhaustion. Based on a chemical our bodies make naturally, it can enhance a gate-like mechanism, which allows certain charged particles to exit the nerve cell. This prevents the build-up of excitability which can be dangerous, and lead to nerve cell death.

“If we can use our new chemical to control this function without affecting other cellular processes – therefore causing negative side-effects – and protect nerve cells from death in the process, it could be a complete game changer for MS treatment.”

Dr Don Mahad, based in Edinburgh, will also be awarded funding from the Alliance. Last year he and his team discovered that the diabetes drug pioglitazone could be another piece in the puzzle of stopping MS, through its ability to protect nerves from damage. Their work, which so far has only been conducted in mice, can now be taken forward in experiments with human tissue.

Dr Mahad, Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, said: “To stop MS from progressing, we need to be able to protect nerves from damage. Last year we found that our nerves have a natural protective response when myelin, the coating that protects them, gets damaged in MS. And in animal studies we were able to enhance that response with a drug that’s already available.

“We’re now able to take our findings forward to see if what we’ve found in mice is also true in brain tissue from people with MS. We also want to find out if nerve cells have other natural protective responses, and how we might help these processes along.”

At University College London (UCL), Professor Ken Smith will explore when the fatal injury that leads to nerve cell death in progressive MS happens. His team will explore whether targeting oxygen shortage in the inflamed nervous system affects the subsequent accumulation of disability.

In addition to three UK projects, scientists in the USA, Italy, Australia, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland and France will also be awarded funding.

Among some of the most exciting international projects are Professor Francesco Bifari’s work in Italy, which will test whether particular nutritional supplements in mouse models of progressive MS can increase cellular energy and mitochondria function in nerve and immune cells. And in Germany, Professor Ludovico Cantuti-Castelvetri will be exploring whether a new antibody can help to clear damaged myelin out of the brain, and in turn slow brain damage.

Professor Alan Thompson, Chair of the Alliance Scientific Steering Committee, said: “These awards represent an important advancement in progressive MS research and will build upon prior investments by the Alliance. We are greatly encouraged by the high quality and diversity of the funded projects. Successful results from these studies will greatly accelerate the development of new treatments for people with progressive MS.”