Cleveland Clinic receives $5.4 million to continue MS research

From Crain's Cleveland Business:

The Cleveland Clinic has received a $5.4 million grant to continue to study brain tissue injury and inflammation in multiple sclerosis.

The grant from the National Institutes of Health will support research that began in 1999 and will extend it another five years.

During the past 10 years, the researchers have used various tactics to study the connection between inflammation and tissue injury in the central nervous system of people who have multiple sclerosis. The disease causes the immune system to damage normal tissue in the central nervous system.

The Clinic research team has used MRI machines to scan the brains of patients with multiple sclerosis and has studied brain and spinal tissue. Patients participating in the study can donate brain and spinal tissue at the time of death. Scientists then use an MRI to scan the tissue prior to the autopsy to identify pathological changes.