Grant: Project Grant

Multiple sclerosis (MS) and related immune-mediated inflammatory disorders (IMIDs) are common. Globally, nearly 1 in 25 people live with at least one IMID. MS affects over 90,000 people in Canada. Similar to MS, IMIDs are often lifelong, which lowers a person's quality of life substantially. To prevent this, identifying what can help prevent IMIDs or improve their clinical management is essential. Many diseases have early warning signs called a prodrome. These early signs occur before the clinical symptoms of the disease and its formal diagnosis. Hence, a prodromal sign may help identify when or if the disease has started. However, a challenge is that these early warning signs may be vague, making it hard to tell what disease the signs point to. To overcome this challenge and facilitate early diagnosis, we need to identify disease-specific prodromal signs. A novel way is by contrasting the prodromal phases of MS to other IMIDs. Understanding how signs in these conditions are the same or different can help develop targeted interventions such as better diagnosis criteria. We would also look at how these prodromal features impact delay in starting MS-specific treatments. We will use routinely collected healthcare information, such as the number and reasons for doctor and hospital visits. These data are anonymized and available to researchers following strict privacy and ethical rules. We will access these data from Sweden and Canada (British Columbia and Ontario) and identify people with MS, five other IMIDs, their full siblings, and people of the same age and sex without any of these diseases. We will see whether MS and other IMIDs that are genetically similar to MS also show similarities in healthcare use and types of symptoms during their prodromal phases. The knowledge generated in our research can be used to identify people at risk of these conditions early, helping with better and faster diagnosis and facilitating earlier treatment.