This project aims to improve treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease that affects the brain and spinal cord, and is common in young adults. MS causes the immune system, which usually protects the body, to attack the brain and spinal cord instead.
The project focuses on a protein called Mertk, which helps control the immune system’s actions in the brain. Professor Trevor Kilpatrick seeks to understand how Mertk affects MS and identify who might benefit most from treatments targeting this protein. Studies will be conducted in both laboratory models of MS and people with MS.
By examining blood samples from people with MS, the team will explore how changes in the levels of Mertk are linked to disease activity. Laboratory models will also investigate how changes in Mertk influence MS symptoms, such as weakness and loss of coordination.
The team previously showed that individuals with a specific version (genetic variation) of the Mertk protein have more active MS measured on brain imaging than those without this variant, in people treated with natalizumab.
In this study, Professor Kilpatrick will determine whether variants of Mertk also influence response to another major MS therapy, ocrelizumab, that targets a different immune process.
If a genetic test of Mertk could help predict response to major MS therapies, this would help clinicians select treatments that are more effective and potentially reduce side effects. The goal is to improve understanding of MS and improve the lives of those living with the condition.
Since the start of this project, Professor Kilpatrick and his team have recruited 93 participants to determine whether variations in the Mertk gene influence the response to ocrelizumab. If this is true, Mertk could become an important biomarker to help predict response to specific types of therapy to aid in bringing precision medicine to the treatment of MS.
Professor Kilpatrick and his team have also determined that switching on the Mertk gene probably does not change the overall expansion of T-cells (a type of immune cell). They are now studying whether switching on Mertk might influence specific subgroups of these cells, including those involved in MS disease processes, and those which can protect against MS.
Professor Kilpatrick and his team have produced a laboratory model in which Mertk was specifically deleted in T cells. They will use this laboratory model of MS to determine whether this deletion influences disease severity. If confirmed, this would flag Mertk as a promising target for MS therapy.
Updated 31 March 2026Â
MSWA
$249,609
2025
3 years
Current project
