Bulletin

Issue: November/December 2005

News

MS research attracts US funding

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society of America has awarded $US375,000 to a La Trobe University research team to pursue a new avenue of investigation into the mechanisms of nerve damage in MS.

‘It’s an area that nobody has tried before and if we are successful, there is the potential to design new drugs to modify the behaviour of MS-affected cells,’ says research team leader, Dr Jacqueline Orian.

A research fellow in La Trobe’s Department of Biochemistry, Dr Orian will receive $US125,000 a year for three years to continue her investigation that began three years ago into the novel origins of nerve fibre damage in multiple sclerosis.

MS Research Australia has supported Dr Orian’s work for a number of years, assisting in her early investigations into understanding nerve cells and fibre damage.

A first of its kind in the world, Dr Orian’s research aims to determine how nervous system damage occurs in pre-symptomatic stages of MS.

‘My interest is in determining why specific supporting cells in the brain and spinal cord, known as astrocytes, which should contribute to the restoration of balance in a positive way, fail to do so and at what point in the disease process this occurs,’ said Dr Orian.

At present, the La Trobe research team and collaborator, Dr Margaret Ayers of the University of Melbourne, have found evidence of nerve fibre damage, together with changes to astrocytes, prior to the onset of symptoms of MS-like disease in mice.

‘Astrocytes are known to be involved in later scarring that occurs in MS, but they have not previously been thought to be involved early in the disease. Our basic premise is to establish whether there is a link between these early changes and nerve fibre injury,’ Dr Orian said.

‘We have taken a path that is not technically easy because we do not know enough about the biology of these cells and how things might change in brain or spinal cord disease. Nobody has followed this path before.

‘We have been working in this area for three years and our initial results were encouraging enough for the American Society to provide these research funds.

‘We have shown that these cells have already undergone changes by the time nerve damage is observed but we are not yet aware whether the change is good or bad. We should know within the three years of the project whether their behaviour is detrimental.

If this is the case, the next step is to look at the possibility of designing a drug to modify this cell behaviour,’ Dr Orian added.

Other members of the research team are Mr Anton Ramp, who is working with Dr Orian on a Multiple Sclerosis Research Australia PhD scholarship, and Ms Dongwei Wang, whose PhD research is financed by the National MS Society of America.