Home > About BNE > Press Room > 2010 Archive > October > MS research funds headed to UB

MS research funds headed to UB

Business First of Buffalo - by Tracey Drury

Researchers at the University at Buffalo will study the impact of environmental factors on multiple sclerosis with a new federal grant.

The $634,000 grant from the Department of Defense is will allow researchers to investigate a trio of environmental factors and their influence on the progression of MS.

According to a university release, the two-year project will test the hypothesis that nicotine metabolism, the byproducts of vitamin D metabolism and increased levels of anti-Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) each interact with variations in specific genes to cause increased
neurodegeneration and increased lesions in MS patients.

The study, a collaboration between UB and investigators from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, will be led by Murali Ramanathan, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences and neurology in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, respectively. The study will be conducted on samples obtained at both universities’ MS centers.

Results of the study will be used to help identify interactions that promote disease progression in MS and help in the development of
preventive and therapeutic interventions.

Other UB researchers working on the project include Dr. Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, Dr. Robert Zivadinov and Jun Qu, study co-principal investigators.