Detection of susceptibility genes for multiple sclerosis

多发性硬化症是神经系统最常见的慢性疾病之一。它通常开始于青年期，持续出现严重残疾，部分恢复导致许多患者在行走、平衡、语言、膀胱控制和其他神经功能方面出现困难。这种疾病对患者和社会都造成了严重的负担。目前没有预防性治疗，治疗费用昂贵（干扰素每年2万美元），在阻止进一步损害方面作用有限，在扭转现有损害方面也没有作用。新的治疗方法将通过对免疫系统如何攻击大脑导致多发性硬化症的充分了解而出现。多发性硬化症有很强的遗传成分，对相关基因的发现将加速对这种疾病病因的探索。拟议的研究涉及由英国剑桥大学协调的国际合作，其中整个人类基因组将使用世界上最好的技术筛选寻找多发性硬化症基因。这笔赠款的资金将使澳大利亚在这一涉及17个国家的合作中享有平等的席位。没有任何一个国家能够招募到足够的患者，因此这项国际努力至关重要。预计对MS病因的了解将导致有效且副作用低的新治疗方法。

Multiple sclerosis is one of the most common chronic diseases of the nervous system. It usually starts in young adulthood and continues with episodes of severe disability from which partial recovery leads in many patients to difficulties with walking, balance, speech, bladder control and other neurologic functions. The disease inflicts a severe burden on both patients and the community. There is currently no preventive treatment and therapy is expensive (interferon at $20,000 p.a.) and of limited benefit in stopping further damage and of no benefit in reversing existing damage. New treatments will come through a full understanding of how the immune system attacks the brain to cause MS. There is a strong inherited component in MS and the discovery of the genes responsible should speed up the quest to understand the cause of the disease. The proposed studies involve international collaboration co-ordinated from Cambridge University, UK, in which the entire human genome will be screened looking for the MS genes using world s best available technology. Funding of this grant will allow Australia an equal seat at the table for this collaboration involving 17 countries. No individual country can recruit enough patients and hence this international effort is essential. It is expected that the understanding of the cause of MS will lead to new treatments that are effective and with low side effects.