Pregnancy, metabolism and multiple sclerosis
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Metabolic adaptation to pregnancy and improvements in multiple sclerosis: potential therapeutic strategy for MS – a pilot study
IRAS ID
251324
Contact name
Cathy Thornton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Swansea University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Pregnancy is the only known natural beneficial modifier of multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms. Many women with relapsing remitting MS (RRMS) experience fewer MS relapses during pregnancy, especially in the third trimester. Soon after the baby is born relapse rates return to normal or can be worse. The immune response in all pregnant women must undergo changes that prevent the mother rejecting the fetus – much as a foreign transplanted organ would be rejected by the body. Many of the immune cells that show changes in function during pregnancy have a role in MS. We think that changes in immune cell function that are a normal part of pregnancy might explain why MS improves. There are three main aims:
1. To examine changes in the molecules that guide the movement of immune cells around the body,
2. To investigate differences in the type and abundance of immune cell-derived proteins that regulate the immune response in MS, and
3. To study how decreasing use of sugars and increasing use of fats by the mother’s body, ensuring a supply of sugar to the baby for growth, affects the function of different immune cell types.This will be done by comparing pregnant and not pregnant women with and without RRMS. By identifying which immune cells contribute to immunological changes in pregnancy with and/or without MS we can design new and better treatments for all people with RRMS.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 2
REC reference
19/NS/0062
Date of REC Opinion
1 Aug 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion