Understanding why the brain ages faster in MS
Brain atrophy means the loss of nerve cells, which causes the brain to shrink. This is a normal part of ageing, but it can happen faster than expected in many people with MS. Current MS treatments don’t stop this brain shrinkage.
Doctors have an idea of how your brain should look on an MRI scan at each age. The difference between how your brain actually looks and how it’s expected to look is called the ‘brain age gap’ (BAG). A higher BAG means the brain appears older than expected.
People with MS tend to have a higher BAG (around 13 years), meaning their brains are ageing faster than expected. This is linked to faster MS progression, but we don’t yet fully understand why this happens.
Recent studies suggest that genes play a major role in how quickly a person’s brain ages. Dr Karim Kreft and his team believe that BAG is strongly linked to both the risk of developing MS and how it progresses over time.
About the project
Karim and the team will use huge genetic datasets to try to find the genes and biological pathways involved in both MS and brain ageing and find out which types of brain cells are most affected.
They will:
- Analyse genetic data from 47,429 people living with MS and 49,482 healthy people whose BAG has been precisely measured. This will help to identify genes linked to faster brain ageing in MS and how they are linked to MS progression.
- Combine these genetic findings with detailed brain tissue data from 5,494 donors. This will help to discover more about the biological pathways involved in faster brain ageing and MS progression. They’ll also study data from over 750,000 individual brain cells. And pinpoint which cell types are most affected by genetic changes linked to faster brain ageing and MS progression.
- Test whether their findings can be used to predict the risk of developing progressive MS. They’ll use genetic and clinical data from 1,700 people with MS from the South Wales MS Registry. And see if they could accurately predict how people’s MS progressed based on their genetic information.
How will it help people with MS?
One of the biggest challenges in MS research is understanding what causes disease progression and how to slow or stop it. This study will improve our understanding of the biological processes that drive brain ageing and nerve damage in MS. Their findings could reveal genes and biological pathways that could serve as targets for future drug treatments.
The team could be successful in developing a tool that can predict a person’s risk of progressive MS based on their genes. And this could allow doctors to tailor treatment to individuals. For example, people at higher risk of fast progression may benefit from using early, high-efficacy treatments. While those at lower risk could avoid unnecessary treatments and side effects.
Changes in brain ageing can be detected very early. So this research could also provide new insights into the early stages of MS and potential ways to prevent it.
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