National MS Society gives more than $18M for research, training
Pathways to Cures initiative funding focus on progression, function, prevention
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society is investing more than $18 million in new grants and fellowships to support multiple sclerosis (MS) research aligned with its Pathways to Cures initiative, which seeks to stop MS progression, restore lost function, and prevent the disease.
This latest round of funding includes 16 research grants and 28 training fellowships and early career awards spanning all three critical research pathways, according to a press release from the organization. The multiyear projects were selected by more than 100 senior scientists in the U.S. as well as a special committee made up of people affected by the disease.
MS is caused by the immune system mistakenly attacking the myelin sheath, a fatty coating that insulates nerve cells and is needed for proper nerve communication. Damage to myelin disrupts communication between nerve cells, leading to symptoms such as muscle weakness, fatigue, and cognitive impairment.
Pathways to Cures focuses on advancing research on three distinct, but overlapping areas. The Stop pathway focuses on early detection strategies and tailored treatments to prevent new disease activity and the emergence of new symptoms. The Restore pathway aims to repair damage and enable people to recover some of their lost abilities. It focuses on developing strategies to improve myelin repair (remyelination) and rehabilitation approaches to restore or even prevent the loss of function. Finally, the End pathway seeks to identify factors that put people at high risk of developing MS and finding ways to prevent it in people at risk.
Funding MS research
This year, 21 new projects from the Stop pathway have been awarded. Among them, Dimitry Krementsov, PhD, of the University of Vermont received nearly $600,000 to study how gut bacteria influence disease progression in a MS mouse model. The study seeks to identify how bacterial metabolites interact with the immune system and whether dietary fiber can affect disease severity.
“Understanding whether certain bacteria or their metabolites increase the risk or progression of MS may lead to novel treatment strategies that can stop MS in its tracks,” a summary of the study reads.
Rachel Rodin, MD, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston is also interested in metabolites, but her project focuses on ways to determine a person’s MS stage, their risk of relapse, and chance of having progressive disability. Rodin plans to analyze more than 250 metabolites in blood samples from people with MS, which may help clinicians measure how the disease is progressing and predict future changes to aid selecting treatments to halt further degeneration.
An additional 15 grants and fellowships were funded as part of the Restore pathway. One will be led by Tess Dierckx, PhD, at Stanford University, who received a postdoctoral fellowship to study how circadian rhythms, or daily cycles of wake and sleep, affect the cells that produce myelin, called oligodendrocytes or oligodendroglia.
Using mouse models and oligodendrocytes derived from people with MS, Dierckx will examine the impact of altered circadian rhythms. The research team is also interested in seeing if administering “certain compounds at certain times of the day can restore disrupted oligodendroglia function,” according to a summary of the study.
Other funded projects in this pathway include one led by Feng Yang, PhD, at Georgia State University to develop training programs to help people with MS avoid falls and another by Bradley Taylor, PhD, at the University of Pittsburgh that’s investigating the molecular mechanisms of pain due to nerve damage.
This funding round will also support a grant in the End pathway. Led by Lu Zeng, PhD, at Columbia University, the project will analyze tissues from the brain, cerebrospinal fluid, and blood from people with MS and leverage computational methods to understand how genetics trigger molecular processes at its onset. The results could point researchers toward early treatment strategies and “help to create new predictive tools to identify individuals who are likely to develop MS, along with personalized interventions to reduce this likelihood.”
Alongside the project-based grants, the National MS Society also funded training for clinicians. Six trainees received the Sylvia Lawry Fellowship, which supports training in clinical trial techniques. Eleven clinical fellows and two U.S. institutions also received funding for training in MS care.
These national and international projects are all part of the organization’s annual investment of $30 million, with the society funding more than 200 new and ongoing studies worldwide.
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