Biomarkers in MS during pregnancy and postpartum

Start Term
End Term
Funding Amount
$50,000
Affiliation(s)
St. Michael’s Hospital
Geographic Region(s) / Province(s)
Ontario
Researcher(s)
Dr. Kristen Krysko
Impact Goal(s)
Advance Treatment and Care

Summary:

  • MS relapses are less common during pregnancy, but up to 30% of women have a relapse in the three months after delivery.
  • Since MRI is not routinely performed during pregnancy, measuring the levels of emerging blood biomarkers (neurofilament light chain (or sNfL); glial fibrillary acidic protein (or GFAP)) during pregnancy could help monitor inflammatory disease activity and disability progression in pregnant women with MS compared to healthy controls.
  • This research will generate a better understanding of how emerging blood biomarkers can be used to monitor MS around pregnancy and predict who is at high risk of relapses after delivery, in order to optimize MS management in women with MS who have pregnancies.

Project Description:

Multiple sclerosis (MS) most commonly presents in women of reproductive age. MS relapses are less common during pregnancy, but 14-30% of women have a relapse in the three months after delivery. It is hard to know who will have a relapse after delivery, but preventing relapses is important to keep women healthy A better understanding of how to identify individuals at high risk of postpartum relapses is important to help optimize MS management such as planning post-partum disease modifying therapy re-initiation. The most common test used to monitor MS is MRI, but this is not performed during pregnancy. Interestingly, there are new biomarkers that could help monitor inflammatory disease activity and disability progression through a simple blood test, including serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). To date, it is not known how these biomarkers are affected during pregnancy and postpartum periods in MS, and whether they can be used to monitor for relapses around pregnancy.

As part of this research study, Dr. Krysko will compare levels of blood biomarkers in women who are pregnant with and without MS. They will also look at whether these levels are higher around relapses in pregnancy and after delivery. The study will follow patients with and without MS throughout their pregnancy and conduct blood tests during each trimester of pregnancy and after delivery to measure sNfL and GFAP levels.

Potential Impact:

This research study will generate a better understanding of how emerging blood biomarkers can be used to monitor MS around pregnancy and predict who is at high risk of relapses after delivery in order to optimize MS management in women with MS who have pregnancies.

Project Status: In progress