UHasselt MS research gets international funding boost

One in 1,000 Flemings suffer from the disease. Patients with relapsing-remitting MS experience sudden periods of physical decline, with longer periods of recovery. Patients with progressive MS suffer from symptoms that only get worse, without any chance for improvement.

Until recently, there were even no clinical studies with patients suffering from the latter, progressive type of MS. That had to change, was the opinion of the International Progressive MS Alliance – a consortium of patient organisations in the US, Canada, the UK, Denmark, Italy and Spain.

During the next five years, this consortium will invest €22 million into research for the development of new drugs and rehabilitation strategies for progressive MS patients.

Among the 22 projects that were selected for the first round of funding are two at Hasselt University, which receive a total of €75,000. One project is the establishment of a “rehabilitation database”, a collection of data about quality of daily life for patients in Europe and North America.

“When we share our data, it will be easier to assess the effects of a particular physical therapy, for instance, for patients with progressive MS,” said Hasselt assistant professor Peter Feys. “Currently we are performing this kind of research into groups of 15 to 35 patients. Sharing data gives us a sampling of 500 patients.”

The other project involves the development of a totally new rehabilitation strategy, meant particularly for the patient’s eyes. Feys: “MS patients very often make inaccurate eye movements, which can lead to poor co-ordination of their limbs. We want to check if training via tablet PCs or TV screens could improve these eye movements and improve the patient’s balance.”