Dr. Ratna Mirchandani's research in one post

It's always a challenge to summarize one's research for a lay audience, but without this, we risk being guilty of not communicating. Here is a summary of my work for the non-biologist.

Multiple Sclerosis is an inflammatory disease. Inflammation is the critical aspect of MS. During MS, inflammation affects the central nervous system (brain, spinal cord) in many ways. Controlling it can dramatically reduce the damage done by MS.

Statins are a popular class of drugs used for cholestrol control and for other conditions. My advisor, Dr. Singh, decided to explore the use of Statins to help cure MS. If this worked, we could speed up a remedy to help millions of patients. It would also be cheaper to use an existing, proven drug instead of developing a new one from scratch. The economics of this approach are compelling. What remains is the science. This is hard.

We tested Statins in an animal model of MS called EAE. This gave us useful insight into the possible pathways that could be controlled by Statins to reduce inflammation.

We got the insight. Now what?

After many other reports about various Statins being useful in animal and cell models, some have been taken for Clinical Trials for possible use by patients. That is where we are in the exploration of the use of Statins to reduce the suffering caused by MS.