Project Coordinator: Jefferson Becker, MD, PhD

Summary of the Work: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS), being characterized by very variable clinical and pathological manifestations. Several pathological studies on Multiple Sclerosis have shown that myelin and its supporting cells, oligodendrocytes, are preferentially destroyed in lesions present in MS. White matter lesions are visible on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), being characterized by hypersignal in T2-weighted images and hyposignal in T1. MRI is useful for non-invasive disease monitoring, being widely used in clinical practice, research and clinical trials. The performance of 11C- (R) -PK11195-labeled PET / CT can detect changes in the normal-looking white matter, in addition to being more sensitive than the contrast uptake in MRI during characteristic MS outbreaks.

The objectives of the work are v to verify the association of microglia activation with clinical (EDSS, MSFC), neuropsychological and radiological (PET / CT) data and MRI measurements of structural and functional connectivity and cortex volume), used to assess the severity of the disease. An uncontrolled clinical trial will be conducted with a control group of healthy individuals for comparison of imaging tests. 24 patients and 5 controls will be analyzed. Patients will be subdivided into two groups of 12 patients, one group consisting of individuals who have not yet received treatment and others with previous use of an immunomodulatory drug (interferon beta or glatiramer). All groups will sign an informed consent form and will undergo a battery of neuropsychological tests, in addition to clinical assessment of the severity of the disease, MRI and PET / CT between the period of October 2014 and April 2017.

Research areas involved: Neurology, Image (RM and PET), Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Radiopharmacy

Funding entity: Novartis