We are pleased to announce the start of a new and exciting research study led by Dr Richard Nicholas, clinical lead of the MS Register, and his study team at Imperial College London. The study will open new avenues for MS research by exploring a topic which has not yet had much attention – family history in MS.
Setting the story…
The exact cause of MS is still unknown, although it is thought to develop due to a combination of genetics and environmental factors. There have been many studies exploring both these avenues, however their specific relationship to MS is still unclear.
What we do know is that there are genetic risk factors for MS and that many families have more than one occurrence of MS. We also know that there is a ~1 in 700 risk of having MS in the general population and that this risk is increased by 1.5-2.7% for first-degree relatives of MS patients. And yet, family members of people living with MS have not yet been incorporated in research studies.
Our goal
We want to dive deeper into the family risk of MS by recruiting first and second degree relatives of people living with MS. Our approach is to investigate the differences in the motor and cognitive capacities of first and second degree MS relatives. From here, we also want to look at brain structure using MRI scans, and other potential environmental and genetic risk factors through blood tests. The overall goal is to find any discrepancies between different family members of MS patients which could give us some clues on the genetic and environmental factors that are triggering the development of MS.
“This is a really exciting project because we are investigating a whole new population which hasn’t yet been looked at and we hope that by doing so, we will be able to learn something new about how MS develops” – Dr Richard Nicholas, clinical lead of the MS Register.
Dr Richard Nicholas also has a strong team of researchers and clinicians behind him on this project, including Imperial PhD student, Alexandra Moura.
“I strongly believe in this project which is why I chose it for my PhD. Current MS research has focused on finding treatments for patients. This would be great if it wasn’t for the fact that patients are often getting diagnosed and put onto treatments too late, rendering the treatment less effective. My goal was to find a PhD which focused on the root of the problem; I believe this is what we will do here.” – Alexandra Moura, PhD student, Imperial College London.
The patient perspective
We have already spoken with our MS Register Patient and Participant Involvement (PPI) group, the Brain Stormers, about the study and have had an overwhelmingly positive response.
“This study is fascinating and immensely valuable for the MS community,” said a member of the Brain Stormers group.
We hope that many more of you will be interested in this study and help us bring it to life by involving your relatives. Together, we can move one step closer to understanding the true cause of MS and improving the treatment and care for MS patients around the world.
The team at Imperial are looking for volunteers above the age of 18 that are either your parents, children, brothers, sisters, aunts or uncles. You can find out more about the study and how to be involved by following this link.
