Cure research

The difference you can make

Projects like this are vital if we are to achieve our goal of developing and testing neuroprotective therapies that prevent and slow disability progression.

Please help us reach that goal by donating today.

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Investigating new ways to repair myelin 

Prof. Charles ffrench-Constant
University of Edinburgh
£100,706

What’s the project about?

The aim of this project is to identify new drug targets for progressive MS. We know that progressive MS is caused when the body fails to repair myelin after damage caused by the immune system. These researchers have found a group of molecules, called endothelins, that play a role in myelin repair and will study these in detail to see if they can be targeted as a treatment to stimulate remyelination.

How will it help people with MS?

At the moment, we have increasingly effective drugs that reduce the activity of the immune system, but none that will repair the damage it leaves behind. As a result we cannot effectively treat people with progressive MS.

The results produced by this project will provide the essential next step in the development of drug therapies for progressive MS.

The difference you can make

This project is based at the MS Society Edinburgh Centre for Translational Research. The Centre has made great strides in understanding how myelin repair works.

One of our research priorities is finding treatments for people with progressive forms of MS. Projects like this are vital if we are to achieve our goal of developing and testing neuroprotective therapies that prevent and slow disability progression.

Please help us reach that goal by donating today.

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Investigating the role of the Gas6 molecule in myelination 

Prof. Arthur Butt
University of Portsmouth
£101,352

What’s the project about?

Myelin damage occurs in MS, but in addition scientists believe that oligodendrocytes – specialised cells in the brain and spinal cord that make myelin – are also damaged in the process.

The brain and spinal cord contain a large number of stem cells that have the potential to make more oligodendrocytes and to therefore repair damage in MS. So it is essential to understand the processes involved in making new oligodendrocytes and how this can go wrong in MS.

Researchers have found that a molecule, called Gas6, improves oligodendrocyte survival and regeneration. This research group aims to understand the ways in which Gas6 does this.

How will it help people with MS?

We hope that by having a better understanding of the way in which Gas6 works the researchers will find new therapies to promote myelin repair in MS.

The difference you can make

Our aim is to beat MS.

You can help us achieve that aim by supporting research like this – research that might, one day, lead to more effective treatments for people with MS.

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Understanding remyelination in people with MS

Professor Robin Franklin
University of Cambridge
£200,877

What’s the project about?

In MS, the immune system attacks myelin, a protective layer surrounding nerve fibres of the brain and spinal cord.

Early research suggests that debris left behind following an attack on the myelin layer prevents myelin repair from happening.

Researchers think that the debris prevents the body’s own nearby stem cells from turning into cells that are capable of replacing the damaged myelin.

In this three year project Professor Franklin and his team will use laboratory models of MS to confirm early research and improve our understanding of how myelin repair can fail in people with MS.

How will it help people with MS?

In MS the myelin repair process is often very inefficient and in some cases fails to happen at all. There are currently no treatments available that can repair damaged myelin.

Knowledge gained in this project might help researchers find a way to promote myelin repair which could potentially benefit people with all types of MS.

The difference you can make

This project is based at the MS Society Cambridge Centre for Myelin Repair. The Centre has made great strides in understanding how myelin repair works.

We need your support to continue this valuable work: to advance our understanding of myelin repair to develop treatments to promote myelin repair in people with MS.

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Do molecules in the blood play a role in nerve fibre damage?

Professor Hugh Perry
University of Southampton
£172,122
What’s the project about?

Research into treatments that protect nerve fibres from damage in people with MS is one of our priorities.

Scientists have found that, at sites of inflammation, damage can occur not only to myelin, but also the nerve fibres of people with MS.

In laboratory models of MS, researchers have found that specific components of the blood can cause this damage.

Professor Perry and his team will test to see if specific components in the blood can pass through the blood brain barrier and damage nerve fibres in laboratory models of MS which molecules in the blood are responsible for this damage to nerve fibres

How will it help people with MS?

Researchers are hoping that the knowledge gained from this project will improve our understanding of what causes nerve fibre damage in MS. This improved understanding will help us work towards new therapies for people with progressive forms of MS.

The difference you can make

There are currently no disease modifying therapies available for people with progressive forms of MS.

We hope that our research will change that.

Support our groundbreaking research so that, together, we can beat MS. 

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CUPID: Cannabinoids to slow disability progression in MS

Professor John Zajicek
University of Exeter & Plymouth
£300,000

What’s the project about?

Some early research suggests that cannabis-based drugs may slow disability progression in people with MS.

This six year project will test the long term safety of a tablet containing the active ingredient of cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), in 500 people with progressive forms of MS. The trial will also test whether THC can slow disability progression compared with a placebo over the course of three years.

How will it help people with MS?

If Professor Zajicek’s team is able to show that this cannabis-based treatment can slow disability progression in this clinical trial, we will be one step closer to a treatment for people with progressive MS.

The difference you can make

Treatments that slow disability progression are urgently needed. By supporting MS research, you will be helping to find and test treatments for the tens of thousands of people living with progressive MS in the UK.

This project is jointly funded by the Medical Research Council, the MS Society and the MS Trust.

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MS Society Cambridge Centre for Myelin Repair

Professor Robin Franklin
University of Cambridge
£2,127,022

What’s the project about?

The MS Society Cambridge Centre for Myelin Repair was set up in 2005 with a £1.6 million grant from the MS Society. Its aim was to develop therapies that promote myelin repair in people with MS.

Based on the success of the first stage of the Cambridge Centre for Myelin Repair, the MS Society committed a further £2.1 million to the Centre in 2011 for an additional five years. Professor Robin Franklin and his team at the Centre will work collaboratively with world leading experts in MS to continue this groundbreaking research.The next stage of this work will:

• build on recent advances in myelin repair research, so it’s possible to identify more potential MS treatments in the future
• do pre-clinical research to translate their laboratory findings into a clinical trial for people with MS
• eventually run a small-scale clinical trial to test the safety of this treatment in a small number of people with MS. 

This next stage of this research started in April 2011 and will finish in 2016, with a trial potentially starting three years into the project.

If the work proves successful, clinical trials  in larger numbers of people will take place to find out whether the potential treatments for myelin repair are safe and effective for people to use.

Researchers believe that we’re still around 15 years away from a potential treatment coming through, but these are positive steps.

How will it help people with MS?

Therapies that promote myelin repair have the potential to benefit people with all types of MS.

This research has been set up with the aim of developing and testing treatments that have the potential to repair myelin damage in people with MS – something that has never been done before.

The difference you can make

Researchers at the Cambridge Centre for Myelin Repair, together with the MS Society Edinburgh Centre for Translational Research, are leading the way in developing treatments that promote myelin repair for people with MS.

We are grateful to our supporters who have made this work possible.

Please help us continue this vital work by donating today.

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MS Society Edinburgh Centre for Translational Research

Professor Charles ffrench-Constant
University of Edinburgh
£2,033,162

What’s the project about?

Discovering treatments for people with MS could be made quicker and easier if researchers from different disciplines worked together.

In 2007 the MS Society set up The Edinburgh Centre for Translational Research, with generous support from the Volant Trust, to try and achieve this. Researchers at the Edinburgh Centre for Translational Research will:

• build on early laboratory discoveries to understand how myelin repair fails in people with MS
• work closely with the MS Society Cambridge Centre for Myelin Repair towards clinical trials for myelin repair therapies for people with MS
• continue early stage research to develop potential therapies for people with progressive forms of MS

How will it help people with MS? 

Disease modifying therapies for people with progressive forms of MS are urgently needed.

Researchers at the Edinburgh Centre for Translational Research believe that promoting collaboration between scientists and clinicians from many disciplines of MS research could speed the process of drug discovery and delivery of potential therapies into clinical trials.

We hope that two of the MS Society’s major investment centres, the Edinburgh Centre for Translational Research and the Cambridge Centre for Myelin repair will lead the way in drug discoveries and clinical trials relating to myelin repair.

The difference you can make

Finding treatments for people with progressive forms of MS is one of our priorities.

Please support MS research so we can achieve our ultimate aim of beating MS. 

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How do mesenchymal stem cells from people with secondary progressive MS differ?

Professor Cris Constantinescu
University of Nottingham
£61,000

What’s the project about?

The aim of this 3 year project is to increase our knowledge about a type of stem cell called mesenchymal stem cells.

These cells are thought to have the ability to repair and limit damage to nerve fibres of the brain and spinal cord in people with MS.

To do this mesenchymal stem cells from people with secondary progressive MS will be compared with cells from people without MS.

How will it help people with MS?

Experts believe that transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells could be a good potential therapy for the treatment of secondary progressive MS and that their effectiveness should be tested in a clinical trial.

A greater understanding of mesenchymal stem cells will be valuable for the design of clinical trials to test these stem cells as a potential therapy for secondary progressive MS.

The difference you can make

There are currently no treatments available to help repair damage caused by MS. This type of project is vital if treatments are to be reality.

This project is jointly funded by the UK Stem Cell Foundation.

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Long-term effects of bone marrow stem cell transplantation in people with MS

Dr Paolo Muraro
Imperial College London
£235,464

What’s the project about?

Bone-marrow transplantation is an experimental treatment for people with severe forms of MS, but we don’t fully understand how it changes people’s immune system, and how that affects MS in the long term.

This three year research project will look at the balance of immune cells before and after bone marrow transplantation in samples taken from around 90 participants in several different clinical trials from around the world.

Dr Muraro and his team will analyse how the immune systems of participants have changed as a result of bone-marrow transplantation.

How will it help people with MS?

Stem cells are considered a promising potential therapy for some people with MS but there are still so many unanswered questions we have. This research will help us answer some of the very important questions that researchers have about how bone marrow transplantation impacts on people with MS in the long term.

The difference you can make

If you would like to see stem cell research progress, please donate today. Together we can beat MS.

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Identifying neuroprotective treatments for people with MS

Dr Alastair Wilkins
University of Bristol
£385,087

What’s the project about?

Early research suggests that drugs that change the behaviour of peroxisomes, a component of nerve cells, may directly protect nerve cells from irreversible damage in people with MS.

Researchers in this four year project will study human brain tissue obtained from the MS Society Tissue Bank and laboratory models of MS with the aim to confirm this early research.

How will it help people with MS?

There is a clear relationship between nerve cell damage and disability progression in MS.

We hope that the results from this study will be used to develop neuroprotective therapies that can protect nerve cells from damage in people with progressive forms of MS and, in turn, slow disability progression.

The difference you can make

One of our research priorities is finding treatments for people with progressive forms of MS. Projects like this are vital if we are to achieve our goal of developing and testing neuroprotective therapies that prevent and slow disability progression.

Please help us reach that goal by donating today.

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A potential protein-based therapy for people with MS

Professor Stephen Anderton
University of Edinburgh
£132,736

What’s the project about?

In MS, a specific type of immune cell called a T-cell can mistakenly attack myelin that forms a protective layer around nerve fibres.

The T-cells that attack myelin are called myelin-reactive T-cells. It has been suggested that small fragments of proteins in the blood could be used to trigger the death of myelin-reactive T-cells, and therefore could be used as a potential treatment for people with MS.

How will it help people with MS?

In this three year project, researchers plan to test what effect injecting these protein fragments has in laboratory models of MS.

If this therapeutic approach proves to be successful, this could lead to clinical trials of a potential therapy for people with the condition.

The difference you can make

Understanding the immune system and its role in MS is a key part of planning future treatment strategies for people living with the condition.

By supporting MS research you could help us one step closer to understanding how the immune system works in people with MS.

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Can brain cells be used to treat optic neuritis?

Professor David Baker
Queen Mary, University of London
£ 288,851

What’s the project about?

Optic neuritis, or inflammation of the optic nerve in the eye, can lead to problems with vision.

Using a laboratory model of optic neuritis this 3 year project will test whether neural stem cells can both promote repair and limit damage to the optic nerve caused during optic neuritis.

How will it help people with MS?

If successful results could be used to develop potential stem cell therapies to promote repair and protection of all nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord, not just the optic nerve.

The difference you can make

Optic neuritis is the most common first effect of MS in people. If recovery from optic neuritis is not good, at present there is no treatment that can reverse this.

Poor vision caused by optic neuritis cannot be helped with glasses or eye exercises.

By supporting MS research you could help find the first treatment that can help repair damage caused during optic neuritis.

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Predicting the side effects of alemtuzumab

Dr Alasdair Coles
University of Cambridge
£139,681

What’s the project about?

Alemtuzumab is a potential treatment currently in phase 3 clinical trials for people with relapsing remitting MS.

Around 20-30 per cent of people with MS who receive alemtuzumab develop treatable autoimmune conditions, such autoimmune thyroid disease (also known as Grave’s disease).

Researchers currently have no way of predicting which people taking alemtuzumab are likely to develop Grave’s disease.

In this three year project Dr. Coles and his team hope to improve our understanding of why some people receiving alemtuzumab develop autoimmunity. They will also test two approaches that aim to minimise the development of autoimmunity: 

• a blood test that can predict the risk of someone developing autoimmunity in response to alemtuzumab treatment
• a vaccine to be given after alemtuzumab treatment which may reduce the risk of developing autoimmunity in response to treatment

How will it help people with MS?

Clinical trial results have suggested that alemtuzumab could be an effective treatment for people with relapsing remitting MS, but its use must be balanced against the risk of side-effects.

Predicting who is likely to develop side effects to alemtuzumab will give people with MS more information in order to make treatment decisions and will help researchers and doctors to prevent the development of these side effects.

The difference you can make

By supporting this research project you could help people with MS make more informed choices about their treatment options in the future.

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• Cure research
• Stem cell therapy

Page last updated: 01 Mar 2012

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