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The MS Society in the U.K. is hoping to raise £3.7 million ($5.2 million) to fund research aimed at developing new treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS).
The funds will support research at the Society’s Centers of Excellence in Edinburgh and Cambridge over five years.
“Our top priority is finding treatments that slow or stop MS for everyone,” Emma Gray, PhD, assistant director of research at the MS Society, said in a press release. “The work happening in Cambridge and Edinburgh is inventive, innovative and incredibly exciting, and will be vital to help us reach our goal.”
MS is caused by immune cells attacking the body’s own myelin, a fatty insulation that covers the long branches, called axons, that extend from nerve cells. When myelin is destroyed a process called demyelination the connections between neurons become defective and MS symptoms arise.
Once this was done, the axon reverted to normal length. The effect was achieved in the laboratory using motor neurons grown from stem cells collected from people with a genetic mutation known to cause both MND and a form of dementia. These laboratory-grown motor neurons were then exposed to a virus which supercharged a key molecule vital to the healthy functioning of mitochondria. When we did that, we found that all of the issues significantly reversed back to normal, said Dr Arpan Mehta, who led the research for his PhD.
Dr Mehta said it could take as little as two years to test whether a drug can produce the same effect in MND patients