RESEARCH
World’s Largest MS Science Meeting Reports on Progress and Challenges The 2013 European Committee for Treatment and Research in MS (ECTRIMS) meeting hosted nearly 8,000 participants in Denmark in midOctober. Attendees from around the world gathered to share ideas and communicate new findings to stimulate faster progress in multiple sclerosis research. The following is a summary of a few of the 1,000 presentations on cutting-edge research to address every aspect of the challenge to stop MS in its tracks, restore function and end MS forever. Examining disease risk when a relative has MS Dr. Helga Westerlind of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm reported on a study by team taking advantage of MS patient registries in Sweden, one of which dates back to the 1800s. They took a fresh look at how much having a family member with MS increases a person’s chances of getting the disease. The team focused on identical and fraternal twins. Comparing the risks of these two groups is important because identical twins are thought to share the same genes whereas fraternal twins do not. They discovered that the risk of an identical twin getting MS if the other twin has the disease was lower than in prior reports, but still much higher than in fraternal twins. This study suggests that the role of genes may be more complicated than previously suspected. Obesity, alcohol consumption and other factors increase odds of MS at earlier ages The incomplete picture of risk genes is driving
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MSConnection • WINTER 2014
more studies looking at their interaction with a person’s lifestyle and environment. For example, Danish researchers Dr. A.B. Oturai and colleagues from Copenhagen University examined a group of potential risk factors, including known MS susceptibility genes, obesity in early adulthood, previous mononucleosis and high teenage alcohol consumption. They found that each of these factors contributed to lowering the age at which an individual was diagnosed with MS. A related study suggested that preventing teen obesity in people with MS susceptibility genes may reduce their risk of developing multiple sclerosis. Smoking raises – and quitting reverses -- MS risk In a large population study, Dr. A.K. Hedstrom and associates from the Karolinska Institute confirmed that cigarette smoking increased the risk for developing MS at any age; the MS risk climbed with the amount smoked. They also found that quitting smoking completely reversed the risk back to normal within a decade. The