A Faculty of Medicine researcher is embarking on an investigation of the gut microbiome’s role in pediatric multiple sclerosis.
Although as few as 5 per cent of new MS cases are diagnosed in children, those cases represent “a critical opportunity” to uncover the disease’s causes, says Helen Tremlett, a Canada Research Chair and Professor in the Division of Neurology.
“Through the families, we’re typically able to get a more complete health and lifestyle history, and we’re closer to the onset of the disease; there is less history to sort through with kids, and we’re better able to pinpoint when the disease took hold,” Dr. Tremlett says. Unlike adults with MS, children have had fewer life exposures, such as different diets, medications, and infections, thus narrowing the search for possible triggers of MS.
The study, which is being supported by a three-year, $500,000 grant from the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada and Multiple Sclerosis Scientific Research Foundation, will link in with the broader Canadian Demyelinating Disease (CDD) study, headed by the University of Toronto and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and which includes all 17 pediatric health care institutions in Canada, six additional Canadian sites and CHOP.
By collecting and analyzing stool samples, Dr. Tremlett and her team will see if there are any associations between these gut microbial communities and children presenting with MS. She hopes the findings will aid the search for the potential cause or causes of MS, as well as factors that might drive or influence the disease in those who already have MS. Enrolment in this first-of-its-kind multi-centre study has already begun.
Dr. Tremlett, for her part, has been at the forefront of research linking MS and the gut microbiome; her work offers preliminary data in support of a link between the gut and neurodegenerative disease, specifically pediatric MS. Dr. Tremlett’s research at the University of California, where she recently spent sabbatical time, has focused on a cohort of 18 children with MS and 17 healthy children.
“The bacteria in your gut educates your immune system, and vice versa,” Dr. Tremlett says. “We already know there’s a gut-brain connection, directly through the vagus nerve for instance, also via the immune system and perhaps through serotonin production – around 90 per cent of which is produced in your gut. Preliminary data shows we’re on the right track with this – we’re examining the link and trying to understand the influence of the gut microbiota in MS and MS on the gut microbiota.”