Two new subtypes of MS found in ‘exciting’ breakthrough

Key Highlights

• Experts said the “exciting” breakthrough could revolutionise treatment of the disease worldwide. In research involving 600 patients, led by University College London (UCL) and Queen Square Analytics, researchers looked at blood levels of a special protein called serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL).
• The protein can help indicate levels of nerve cell damage and signal how active the disease is. The sNfL results and scans of the patients’ brains were interpreted by a machine learning model, called SuStaIn.
• The results, published in medical journal Brain, revealed two distinct types of MS: early sNfL and late sNfL. In the first subtype, patients had high levels of sNfL early on in the disease, with visible damage in a part of the brain called the corpus callosum.
• They also developed brain lesions quickly.
• This type appears to be more aggressive and active, scientists said. In the second subtype, patients showed brain shrinkage in areas like the limbic cortex and deep grey matter before sNfL levels went up.