Local MS association hosting race for research
The Association de la sclérose en plaques de l’estrie – the region’s multiple sclerosis (MS) association will host its annual charity race, La Grande Course, June 4 for the first time since before the pandemic. The event will fund Université de Sherbrooke research into the disease, which afflicts about one in 400 Canadians.
MS is an autoimmune disease affecting the central nervous system. Symptoms are often unpredictable and can include extreme fatigue, vision problems, difficulty walking and cognitive impairment. Researchers have not yet cured the disease.
“All of the money we make from registration fees will go 100 per cent toward research,” said Samuel Rousseau-robidoux, the association’s deputy director and head of research. The organization anticipates about 450 participants this year, he said. On top of sign-up fees, the fundraiser will accept donations at the event and online. Rousseau-robidoux said he expects the run to raise $10,000.
A Université de Sherbrooke matching scheme will amplify participants’ fees and donations, association CEO René Mckay said. “We inject money into the research fund, but thanks to the faculty of medicine, there’s a matching program,” he said.
The races will begin on the university campus and include a children’s 1 km race, alongside 3.5 km, 5.5 km, 10 km and 20 km races. Both runners and walkers are invited.
Past races funded a study into antiinflammatory molecules in central nervous system cells. “More precisely, the project studied a protein that would play an immune role on certain pro-inflammatory cells appearing to be responsible for the brain plaque development characteristic of MS,” Rousseau-robidoux said. That study won Marjan Gharagozloo a prize for the best doctoral thesis in health sciences at the Université de Sherbrooke.
Races have also paid for a study into cats’ walking patterns following spinal cord injuries. “The benefit of the project is to eventually better understand how to optimize the recovery of walking patterns,” for patients with MS, Rousseau-robidoux said.
This year’s event will contribute to a study into regenerating neurons and axons to reconstruct the functional connections between the brain and muscles. Viktoriia Bavykina, a Ukrainian Université de Sherbrooke student who arrived in Canada in 2022, will spearhead that study as part of her master’s degree.
The fundraiser will also funnel donations into a second study investigating the effect of exercise on MS patients’ brains. This study will actively involve the association, which provides physical training to patients.
Rousseau-robidoux hopes the race will “help research into understanding multiple sclerosis at flourish.”