$3.4 million directed to key MS
study
by Terry Devitt
Wisconsin Week
University Communications
Posted: 8/10/2005
In an effort to develop new
techniques to repair and protect the nervous system in multiple sclerosis
patients, including the use of human stem cells, the National Multiple Sclerosis
Society has awarded $3.4 million to a team of UW-Madison scientists.
The group, led by School of Veterinary Medicine professor Ian D. Duncan, is
developing cell transplant techniques that may one day be used to repair the
damaged myelin - the critical sheathing of nervous system fibers -
characteristic of the debilitating and unpredictable disease.
"It's all about myelin repair and protecting nerve fibers," says Duncan, an
international authority on myelin and myelin-related diseases. "The goal is to
translate bench research into clinical application."
Multiple sclerosis - which affects an estimated 2.5 million people worldwide,
400,000 people in the United States and 10,000 in Wisconsin - involves a
misdirected attack by the immune system on myelin, the nerve fiber coating that
speeds the signals of the central nervous system. Multiple sclerosis also
destroys the underlying nerve fiber, causing symptoms such as numbness,
blindness, cognitive dysfunction and paralysis.
An important part of the Wisconsin project, according to Duncan, will be efforts
to direct human stem cells to become myelinating cells that could be used in
transplants to repair the nervous system lesions characteristic of multiple
sclerosis.
The project, Duncan adds, will also expand studies of the antibiotic minocycline,
a drug that has shown potential for protecting nerve fibers and mitigating the
debilitating symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Duncan's lab has already shown that
the drug has anti-inflammatory properties in an animal model of MS.
The Wisconsin team, Duncan says, plans to deploy powerful, state-of-the-art
imaging technologies, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and Positron
Emission Tomography (PET), to image lesions and how they respond to treatment.
The work to be funded by the new grant, part of a five-year, $30 million
initiative by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, is expected to lay the
groundwork for clinical trials by refining cell transplant methods and the
ability to image myelin and nerve fiber damage and cell repair at work. The new
initiative, known as "Promise 2010," includes a pledge of $2 million in support
from the Wisconsin chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
"We're tremendously gratified by this level of support," Duncan said. "It's a
step, we think, toward major clinical advances."
"This is a new chapter in MS research and should serve as a springboard for
translating basic lab findings into important new treatments for people with
MS," says John R. Richert, vice president of research and clinical programs for
the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
In addition to Duncan, UW-Madison team members include John O. Fleming, a
professor of medical microbiology and neurology; Aaron Field, a professor of
neurology and radiology;
Su-Chun Zhang, a
professor of anatomy and neurology; Andrew L. Alexander, a professor of medical
physics and psychiatry; P. Charles Garell, a professor of neurological surgery;
James E. Holden, a professor of medical physics and radiology; Mary Elizabeth
Meyerand, a professor of medical physics and neurology; Thomas Cook, a senior
scientist in biostatistics; Zsuzsa Fabry, a professor of pathology; Alex
Converse, an assistant scientist at the
Waisman Center; and Maria Nikodemova, an assistant scientist in medical
sciences.
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