MS News Today published an overview of the Tisch MSRCNY paper published in Brain discussing our novel animal model for PPMS. You can read the coverage in full here.

Primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) is driven by antibodies in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), the liquid around the brain and spinal cord — but this is not the case in the more common relapsing forms of MS — a new study done in mice suggests.

Researchers say this result will have far-reaching impact in the treatment of PPMS versus other types of multiple sclerosis.

“By developing an animal model specifically designed for PPMS, our team has been able to at long last confirm a widely-suspected hypothesis: that PPMS is in fact its own disease,” Saud A. Sadiq, MD,a neurologist from the Tisch MS Research Center of New York and co-author of the study, said in a Tisch press release.

“This finding not only gives us the ability to conduct more precise research on PPMS and develop more targeted treatments — but it also represents another important step toward our center’s overarching goal to find the cause of and the cure for MS,” Sadiq added.

The study, “Cerebrospinal fluid immunoglobulins in primary progressive multiple sclerosis are pathogenic,” was published in Brain.

According to the research team, this finding lends credence to the idea of advancing CSF pheresis — using a machine to filter out the CSF, similar to how dialysis is used to filter blood — as a potential treatment strategy in primary progressive MS.

“For thousands of PPMS patients and their families, who have long been without effective treatment options, this research is potentially game-changing,” said Jamie Wong, PhD, a researcher at Tisch and study lead author.