A Memorial researcher says biomarkers may predict one of Canada's most prevalent diseases
One in an ongoing series of Gazette stories celebrating researchers who received support as part of a major investment by the federal government for health-care solutions and treatments on March 13.
Memorial University is a national leader in multiple sclerosis (MS) research.
That’s due in no small part to scientists like Dr. Craig Moore, an associate professor of neuroimmunology in Memorial University’s Faculty of Medicine.
Dr. Moore is part of a growing team of researchers searching for better MS treatments. Canada has one of the highest rates in the world, if not the highest, and in CA Newfoundland and Labrador has the highest rates in the country.
Recent funding of $1,227,825 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) will help propel Dr. Moore’s current innovative projects to the next level.
Built the foundation
“This grant will build on work that’s been done in the Faculty of Medicine over the past 10 years while I held the Canada Research Chair in neuroscience and brain repair,” said Dr. Moore.
Although his Canada Research Chair ended in October 2024, after a maximum 10-year term, he says it provided the foundation to build a world-class MS research program.
“We will continue our important collaborations with neurologists and neuroscientists across Canada.”
Through a partnership with Dr. Michelle Ploughman, the Faculty of Medicine’s Canada Research Chair in rehabilitation, neuroplasticity and brain recovery, the two researchers established critical infrastructure and the Health Research Innovation Team in Multiple Sclerosis, which includes a clinical database and longitudinal biorepository of local MS patient samples.
“We created something we could use for future research projects by us, students, residents or anyone interested in asking basic questions about MS,” said Dr. Moore. “This grant will allow us to continue collecting and storing these valuable longitudinal patient samples, which include blood, plasma, serum and cerebrospinal fluid. We will continue our important collaborations with neurologists and neuroscientists across Canada.”
With this new CHIR funding, Dr. Moore’s lab will also focus on understanding disease progression — an area where current MS treatments fall short.
“Most drugs used to treat MS target the immune system, because much of the disease is driven immunologically early on,” he said. “That’s why those drugs work well by decreasing the severity and number of relapses.”
But as the disease moves on, 15-20 years later, most patients end up in a progressive phase where the drugs don’t work anymore.
The disease becomes largely neurodegenerative as opposed to immune-related.
“This is why it is critical to find a drug that can prevent progression in MS.”
Potential therapeutic use
Dr. Moore’s research also aims to identify biomarkers within patients’ biofluids that may predict and/or monitor progression by studying small sub-cellular particles called extracellular vesicles.
He says he is trying to figure out, prognostically, through the development and validation of biomarkers, who might go on to develop a progressive phase, but also if there are biomarkers that can predict whether an individual patient will benefit from a specific therapy.
“We’ve become the most active MS research unit and team in Atlantic Canada.”
Extracellular vesicles go everywhere throughout the body and carry biological materials such as nucleic acids, lipids and proteins.
“We have recently shown that depending on the severity of MS, different extracellular vesicle profiles can be measured in the blood and be indicative of neuronal loss in the brain,” he said.
This recent work has been published in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Immunology.
Dr. Moore says this is particularly important because accessing blood is much easier than accessing cerebrospinal fluid, and it can be done more frequently to track changes over time.
‘Calibre of science’
Even more exciting is the potential use of extracellular vesicles in therapy.
“You can also load extracellular vesicles with good molecules, protective and regenerative molecules, that can make good proteins, good lipids, good whatever,” he said. “They can then be delivered directly into the brain, intrathecally into the spinal fluid, or even into the blood as they easily cross the blood-brain barrier. We might be even able to target them directly where they are needed to help with repair in the brain.”
Dr. Moore’s lab is currently using pre-clinical animal models that he hopes will provide evidence that the approach could work in humans.
The method has been attempted in other diseases, including cancer and heart disease.
Fellow MS researcher, Dr. Deepak Kaushik, was also funded in the same CIHR competition. He is receiving $1.1 million for his work.
“In the past 10 years, we’ve become the most active MS research unit and team in Atlantic Canada,” said Dr. Moore. “At the national and international level, we are highly respected for what we’ve done here. To have two researchers from Memorial University who are studying MS be awarded within the same CIHR panel and funding period is quite amazing. It speaks loudly of the calibre of science being done here at Memorial.”
You can read about more of Memorial University’s multiple sclerosis research advances here.