On the occasion of World Multiple Sclerosis Day, May 30, 2018, The Union for the Fight Against multiple sclerosis (UNISEP) is organizing its annual awareness campaign. The goal is to educate the public about this disease and raise funds to advance research and help patients. Speech difficulties, spasms, depression, blurred vision, incontinence, dizziness, impotence, burns, abnormal sensations… One of the main goals of this campaign is to raise awareness of the often invisible symptoms of multiple sclerosis.
Indeed, it is a neurodegenerative disease where the myelin sheath, surrounding and protecting the neurons, is attacked by the immune system. This leads to motor and cognitive disabilities of varying degrees. Patrick Hautecoeur, neurologist and dean of the faculty of medicine, explains in a report produced by UNISEP that “multiple sclerosis is a disease of the West, a disease of the city and a disease that is more and more feminine. This is probably explained by genetic factors and by environmental factors in which the lack of sunlight may explain the north-south gradient of this disease ”.
It is important to continue research
The management of patients is very complex, as the disease varies enormously from one person to another. “There are treatments that are increasingly effective, well tolerated and well adapted to each patient and in most cases they make it possible to stop the progression of the disease”, explains Patrick Hautecoeur. But that does not mean that research should stop, quite the contrary. The National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (Inria) is working, for example, on software to automatically determine where the lesions due to the disease are located. They are also developing new methods in order to better understand the evolution of the disease and to predict it. Ultimately, the goal is to move towards medicine that is even more specific to the patient.
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