Multiple sclerosis affects 3,600 people every year in Italy alone
Brain health and MS prevention. The Congress of Aism and its Fism Foundation kicks off today in Rome
ROME – Multiple sclerosis, things are changing. Research on this disease is constantly moving and produces tangible results that have changed the lives of people with MS. But more can and must be done for a pathology that affects 3,600 people every year in Italy alone: there are around 3 million in the world, over 140 thousand in Italy, a diagnosis every 3 hours.< br>Starting with the prevention and diagnosis of the disease, the themes at the center of the annual congress of the Fism, the Foundation of the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Association, starting today in Rome at the Villa Pamphili hotel until May 30th .
The conference is entitled ‘Brain health: rethinking the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and related pathologies’: the successes of research on multiple sclerosis and related pathologies are increasingly are linked to a global agenda that has brain health as its objective.
And as evidence of global research work, the Fism congress opens with the presence of numerous international researchers who with Aism and Fism are carrying out considerable projects to find that definitive cure that does not yet exist.
New scientific evidence shows that research into the causes of multiple sclerosis has made enormous progress in recent years. This today increasingly allows us to imagine prevention strategies which, if they cannot yet prevent the onset of the disease, can help identify risk factors and avoid disability. Or to understand which paths to follow.
As happens in the case of the Epstein-Barr virus, recalls Kjell-Morten Myhr of the University of Bergen, guest of the first day of work of the Fism congress. ‘It has now been demonstrated – he states – that EBV infection is an essential prerequisite for the development of the disease, but it is not yet clear how such a common virus can contribute to MS’.
To find out, >Myhr and colleagues launched the EBV-MS project financed by the European Union for a value of 7 million euros, which also sees the participation of Fism, to study the virus at 360 degrees, its interactions with the host, lifestyles and imagine possible therapeutic strategies, from antivirals to vaccines.
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On the second day Professor Luca Battistini, director of the Neuroimmunology Laboratory, Santa Lucia Irccs Foundation in Rome, with his reading for the delivery of the Rita Levi Montalcini Award< /strong> will recall the growing importance of the intestinal-brain axis and dysbiosis as a further ‘trigger’ (detonator) for the development of multiple sclerosis and as a risk factor which can be prevented.
But the research goals have already produced concrete results destined to change clinical practice. This is the case of the new diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis: they will officially be presented only at the next Ectrims congress, scheduled for September in Copenhagen, but Xavier Montalban of Cemcat, the Center for Multiple Sclerosis of Catalonia, previews its contents at the Fism congress. ‘Thanks to the review work carried out by expert radiologists, clinicians, epidemiologists and with the contribution of the patients’ point of view – he explains – we have reached a consensus on what will be the new diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis’.
< strong>But what are the benefits of new diagnostic criteria? ‘The periodic review of diagnostic criteria on the basis of scientific evidence – continues Montalbano – allows us to be able to increasingly anticipate diagnoses and thus treatments, perhaps even earlier of the manifestation of symptoms. And this, we have shown, is associated with a better long-term prognosis, also capable of lowering the risk of disability and improving the quality of life of patients.’
Among the issues at the center of the review, Montalban anticipated , the characteristics of the optic nerve, the analysis of new magnetic resonance imaging markers and assessments relating to patients with concomitant vascular risk factors.
‘We need to research that produces concrete impacts on the lives of people with MS – declares Aism vice-president Rachele Michelacci– and the arrival of new diagnostic criteria that promise to improve people’s prognosis and quality of life answers fully to the first of the points included in our Charter of Rights, the right to health.
The importance of investing in a new discipline clearly emerges from the Fism congress: science with and of the patient . This underlines a fundamental concept: an early diagnosis of the disease towards preventive medicine can only progress by knowing the person’s experience of the disease and making it scientific for all the actors in the system.
‘Science with the people of the person – underlines Paola Zaratin, director of Fism scientific research– must be one of the fundamental disciplines of a multidisciplinary and participatory model of research and care, unique in guaranteeing that scientific innovation and < strong>digital transformation can be introduced into clinical practice’.
In this spirit, patients are called to join the research table. ‘We people with MS – Michelacci’s words – must feel co-responsible towards research. For an early diagnosis of the progression, to know the causes of the disease, to find treatments we must be at the research table and give, together with all the other actors, those answers that are not yet there. We must be an active part of the scientific plan. It is a job that must be done together, mutually.
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At the center of a program for brain health and preventive medicine is also the creation of an EU Brain Data System. ‘In this context – declares Marco Salvetti, full professor of Neurology at Sapienza University, director of neurology at the S. Andrea University Hospital in Rome, member of the board of directors of Fism– we continue our commitment for the creation of an integrated system of clinical, genetic, neuroimaging and patient-reported data (Barcoding MS), for the characterization of all newly diagnosed cases of MS in Italy and Europe’.
Rethinking the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and ensuring brain health, however, also means continuing to invest in research into potential biomarkers and risk factors for the disease. This will also be discussed at the congress, with the presentation of the results of the projects supported by Fism which have investigated, among other things, the role of air pollution as a possible trigger of inflammation in MS, and the search for biomarkers in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid for disease monitoring and to study the effectiveness and side effects of therapies, also thanks to the clinical data coming from the Italian Multiple Sclerosis and Related Pathologies Registry, which today includes over 90 thousand patients .
On the third day of the conference, however, the leading experts in stem cells will meet with representatives of institutions and experts in health economics and >drug development to discuss the concrete prospects that come from stem cells for multiple sclerosis and the clinical and regulatory challenges posed by the advent of advanced therapies.
The proceedings will close with presentations on the central role of rehabilitation through physical and cognitive research carried out by the Foundation, as the key to keeping the brain healthy, preserving people’s function and quality of life.
There are 188 projects underway, in the period 2022-2024, supported by Fism (84 to block MS, 74 to restore function, 23 for primary prevention and seven to strengthen research infrastructures) for a total investment of over 56 million euros.
To these another five million euros will be added with the financing of the Fism 2024 call, obtained largely thanks to the contribution of citizens’ 5xmille.
Fism and its researchers are part of an international network and in 2023 , together with associations from Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and the International MS Federation, have committed to a global research strategy. ‘Only by inserting research priorities within a global strategy and valorising the contribution of patients – highlights the president of Fism, Mario Alberto Battaglia – can we respond to the needs of people with MS’.
‘In doing so – he specifies – we gave ourselves three directions. The first aims to block multiple sclerosis, the progression of symptoms and disability, finding the new treatments that are still missing. The second aims to recover function: finding strategies to repair myelin, making rehabilitation increasingly effective, improving people’s quality of life. The third is the ambition to put an end to MS once and for all, which means reducing the risk factors to zero and arriving at a world in which there are no longer any diagnosis of multiple sclerosis’.
The presence on the international scene of Aism and Fism is more fundamental than ever in a period like this, underlined the executive director of the European Brain Council, Frédéric Destrebecq, guest of the congress. ‘The European elections – he recalls – are a great opportunity to bring the importance of brain health to the attention of the new Parliament. We hope that this can translate into a strategy at European level that dialogues with national plans’.
‘The number of people in Europe living with neurological problems is high– he concludes- and the discussions on these issues must take place with the contribution of those who are experts from their experience, to break the stigma and isolation. The involvement of people will help to increase attention especially on a condition like MS, where we have the opportunity to talk about how research has led to the development of many therapies.
The congress was made possible with the sponsorship non-conditioning of the main sponsors Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease, Biogen, Merck Italia, Neuraxpharm, Novartis Italia and the Sponsor Bristol-Myers Squibb.