MS mechanisms: exploring how the predisposing genetic factors cause multiple sclerosis.

Summary

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which the patients' own immune system attacks their brain and spinal cord causing damage. It is the most common cause of disability in young adults in the western world.

The purpose of this study is to try and understand how a person's "genetic make-up" influences how their immune system works, and how they respond to drug treatments. The specific context is the treatment of multiple sclerosis with a drug called alemtuzumab.

Clinical trials have shown alemtuzumab to be very effective in treating multiple sclerosis, now we are trying to work out why. We also know that alemtuzumab has side-effects; in particular 1 in 3 patients treated with alemtuzumab develop a new autoimmune disease where their immune system stops attacking their brain and spinal cord and begins to attack another part of their body. In most cases this is the thyroid gland. Here we aim to try and understand why this happens. We believe that understanding this may, one day, enable us to prevent this side effect from occurring.

Participation: For this study we recruited 79 volunteers from the Cambridge BioResource to give a 100ml blood sample.