An interesting new study on pregnancy and MS

Readers of our Choices Pregnancy booklet will be familiar with the fantastic work undertaken by the Preventive Neurology Unit, Queen Mary University of London, headed by Prof. Ruth Dobson, in helping to gauge a better understanding of the relationship between pregnancy and MS. Their 2019 UK consensus on pregnancy in MS provided some much-needed guidance for couples who are planning a pregnancy. This included information around medication management before, during and after pregnancy, birth-related guidance and additional considerations for the postpartum period. 

Our booklet is currently being reviewed and will be relaunched in the coming weeks (watch this space!), however, MS-UK connected with the team at Queen Mary University to find out more about a study which they are currently conducting. The Pregnancy and Methylation changes in Multiple Sclerosis (PaMMS) study is set to look deeper into the relationship between MS and pregnancy, with a focus on finding out why many females with MS experience changes in their condition whilst pregnant.  

Nicola Vickaryous, a Postdoctoral Researcher and member of the PaMMS team, explains more about this study. 

The PaMMS Study – What pregnancy can teach us about multiple sclerosis 

The observation that pregnant women tend to have fewer relapses makes a compelling reason to study pregnancy. Importantly, this is an area of research that can have implications for all people living with MS! 

What is the PaMMS study looking at and why is it important? 

The PaMMS study was set up to look at why MS tends to get better during pregnancy. Pregnancy is a time associated with a lot of changes – your hormones shift, the immune system adapts, and your body gets ready to support a growing baby. Some of these changes seem to calm down MS activity. But what we don’t know is what changes are happening at the molecular level. In the PaMMS study we want to look up close at the way DNA is packaged and modified and how that changes across pregnancy. Looking at methylation, which is a reversible chemical change that helps package DNA and switch genes on or off, can help us understand which genes may be protecting against relapses.  

We hope that what we learn from this study can be used to find new ways to detect MS earlier, and track how active disease is or if a treatment is working. What we learn from this study could also one day be used to identify new targets for MS treatments.  

What are we doing in this study?  

We are taking blood samples from people with MS who are pregnant, both across pregnancy and after they have given birth. We are also taking samples at similar times from people with MS who are not pregnant, so that we can look at the differences that pregnancy causes.  

How can I get involved? 

We have had a fantastic response from the MS community so far – thank you to everyone who has shown an interest in our study! It is clear that this research is really connecting with people, and that is encouraging. But we are still looking for more women to join. We need both pregnant and non-pregnant UK based women living with MS to take part. 

We understand that life can be very busy, so we do our best to offer flexibility with study visit times and locations. We can carry these out either at our research institute in London, or if it is more convenient, we can also offer home visits (dependent on your location). We do whatever we can to accommodate your schedule, in fact it is not unusual for us to come and do a study visit before someone heads off to work for the day! Don’t hesitate to get in touch to see how we could make involvement with the study work for you. 

Anyone who is interested can contact the study team directly at pamms@qmul.ac.uk to find out more information.