Overview

Researchers have made considerable progress in understanding the nature of MS, and their insights have led to the development of three new drug therapies for the disorder in the past decade. While these treatments represent major therapeutic advances, they provide only partial benefit to MS patients, are complicated to administer, and are extremely expensive. Still, there is reason for optimism. Scientific advances have provided a rationale for the development of additional therapeutic agents that are now entering clinical trials. Their successes have attracted the interest of biotech and pharmaceutical companies that are now actively performing and sponsoring research aimed at finding new and more effective therapies.

With this in mind, the MS Center has established a leading-edge clinical trials program with a state-of-the-art database management system. The clinical trials unit has the capacity to design and implement tests of experimental agents and allow patients access to groundbreaking therapies that are not yet widely available. For example, the Center has coordinated a national, multi-center combination therapy trial in MS, which uses MRI scans on a monthly basis to see if a promising new drug combination is indeed safe and effective. Results from this study should be available at the end of this year. In the meantime, interim analysis used to assess safety shows that subjects are responding positively to the combination therapy.

Clinical Research

Clinical trials are scientific studies designed to test the safety and efficacy of new agents for treating disease. Fred Lublin, M.D. and Aaron Miller, M.D. are extensively involved in a wide variety of studies to evaluate more effective and novel approaches to treating all types of multiple sclerosis.

We have learned that the only way to effectively recruit patients for these very important studies is to collaborate with referring physicians. We understand the importance of primary doctor/patient relationships and always encourage your continued involvement providing standard of care treatment. Over the course of a study, we provide referring physicians with patient status reports, and are available at any time should a primary provider have any questions regarding a patient's participation.

If you are a physician and are interested in any of the research studies listed in this section, please contact via e-mail multiple.sclerosis@mssm.edu.

Basic Science

Under the direction of internationally-acclaimed neuroscientist Gareth R. John, Ph.D., the MS Center is developing a leading-edge basic science research program to support clinical activities.

Multiple Sclerosis is a disease of the adult human brain and spinal cord, which is characterized by intermittent worsening of symptoms, followed by partial or complete recovery. As the disease progresses over time, the extent to which patients repair damage and recover from relapses is typically reduced, and for this reason, brain repair represents a major goal in MS therapy.

Dr. John and his laboratory are working to address this need, analyzing factors relevant to repair in MS using microarray analysis, a modern approach that screens approximately 35,000 genes in each experiment. This technique, combined with extensive follow-up, has identified a number of factors that may be relevant to regeneration in the brains of patients with the disease.

Dr. John's laboratory's long term goal is to be able to combine treatments that encourage repair and recovery in MS, with pre-existing therapies that prevent the formation of new damage. In this way, it may be possible to protect patients from new relapses and worsening of their symptoms, while allowing them to gradually recover from the symptoms that they already possess.