Kent State supports a collaboration between the Oak Clinic of Akron Ohio and the School of Biomedical Sciences dedicated to the discovery and development of innovative interventions for the treatment and cure of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). This neurodegenerative disorder strikes approximately 1 in 1000 individuals in America each year. Despite its prevalence, especially in NE Ohio, the causes of this disease are unknown. While there are disease modifying therapies currently available, a cure is still in the future, in part due to a lack of understanding of the basic mechanisms of the disorder. MS is believed to be an immune-mediated disease of the central nervous system leading to nerve demyelination and progressive neurodegeneration. Therefore, treatment of MS should benefit from both anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective strategies. Unfortunately, systemic delivery of anti-inflammatory therapies to people with MS has met with limited success, while neuroprotective strategies have been relatively unexplored.
The collaboration between the Oak Clinic and the School of Biomedical Sciences was initiated because complex neurological disorders such as MS require the combined expertise of scientists and clinicians. The collaboration links researchers in multiple disciplines, in order to focus their respective talents on developing new treatments and cures for this disease. For example, researchers at the Oak Clinic and Kent State combined their resources and identified genes involved in the loss of neurons in MS. These studied employed expression microarray technology and proteomics, which have proven useful in identifying functional groups of genes involved in other complex CNS diseases such as Alzheimer's and schizophrenia. These advanced analytical procedures allowed us to observe striking decreases in the expression of genes and proteins involved in energy metabolism. In addition, we are characterizing changes in glutamatergic systems in MS tissues, since the neurotransmitter glutamate has been implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegeneration.
These new and exciting areas of research and the faculty who pursue them provide valuable educational resources for graduate students interested in careers dedicated to the eradication of neurodegenerative disorders. The Kent State - Oak Clinic connection also provides the infrastructure and research expertise that create significant possibilities for interactions between researchers and clinicians investigating MS or other nervous system disorders.
Key Research Investigators:Dr. T. Carrabine, Dr. R. Clements, Dr. R. Dorman, Dr. E. Freeman, Dr. J. Mcdonough, Dr. C. Sheppard