UCLA neurologist Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl has been awarded a three-year grant for more than $2 million dollars from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to develop therapies to halt or alleviate the disabilities associated with multiple sclerosis (MS), a sea change from the way the neurological disorder is currently treated.
Current treatments that target reducing MS relapses have had only modest secondary effects on slowing permanent disabilities, and only in a subset of patients.
Through this grant, the UCLA multidisciplinary research team hopes to create treatments to halt and repair each MS-related disability on its own, such as problems with walking, cognition and vision. In contrast, current treatments take a “one-size-fits-all” approach, using one treatment aimed at slowing the progression of all of the various disabilities, said Voskuhl, professor in the UCLA Department of Neurology and director of UCLA's Multiple Sclerosis Program, who will serve as principal investigator on the project.
“Our hypothesis is that since each disability has differences in molecules in its neurological pathway, a one-size-fits-all approach will not work,” Voskuhl said. “We believe a treatment should be optimized specifically for each disability by targeting molecules important in each pathway. This grant will allow us to perform important work using this novel approach.”
Voskuhl’s team brings together researchers from across the UCLA campus to collaborate on this project. The team includes Dr. Michael Sofroniew from the department of neurobiology, Thomas O'Dell from the department of physiology, Allan Mackenzie-Graham from the Brain Mapping Program in the department of neurology and Yuichiro Itoh of UCLA’s Multiple Sclerosis Program in the department of neurology.
“This team brings a wide range of expertise to the table to attack this important problem, aiming to lay the groundwork for future clinical trials of disability-tailored treatments to provide a better quality of life for MS patients,” she said.
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system where immune cells from the blood attack the tissue surrounding the brain's nerve fibers. Called myelin, this tissue is like the insulation wrapped around an electrical wire. When the myelin is damaged, it interferes with the ability of the nerves to send signals to and from the brain, resulting in symptoms including difficulty with walking, cognitive problems, poor vision and other disabilities.
It is estimated that more than 2.1 million people are affected by MS worldwide. It is a major cause of chronic disability in young adults.