Approved Research

Neuroimaging data from people with multiple sclerosis and healthy controls for biomarker research in multiple sclerosis

Lay summary

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease affecting the brain and spinal cord, for which there is currently no cure. The way MS affects people differs greatly between individuals and we do not know yet what causes this, or how to predict how severely an individual patient will be affected. We need measurements or 'markers' of changes in the body that can predict how severely someone will be affected by MS and to help assess whether new treatments are effective or not. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be able to help us with developing such markers. The MRI scanner can obtain images from the brain and other body parts, without causing any harm to a person. This means it can capture damage in the body caused by MS, even in microscopic detail. The MS imaging group in Edinburgh uses various MRI techniques with the aim of developing MRI markers of disease progression in patients recently diagnosed with MS.

We will use data from the FutureMS study (people with MS) and the UK Biobank (healthy people and people with MS) to investigate multiple MRI images as markers of MS disease. These MRI measures include evaluating brain volume as well as very subtle, or microscopic, brain changes. Additionally, we will also be studying the top layer of the spinal cord, which is the part of the spine in the neck. We will also look at these images in relation to measures of thinking speed or physical disability, to explore whether changes in the images can predict changes in for example thinking or walking.

This project will be divided into separate parts, assessing different aspects of MRI images, but will overall take 3 years.  Results from this project will help in developing measurements on MRI scans that are able to predict how severely a person is affected by their MS. These will also improve development of medical treatments by showing how effective they are in individual patients.