Author J.K. Rowling has donated the equivalent of $16.4 million Cdn to help set up a centre to research multiple sclerosis, the disease that led to the death of her mother.

The creator of boy wizard Harry Potter said Tuesday that the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic, named after her mother, will be based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. It will also study other degenerative neurological conditions, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, seen in 2008, says she ‘cannot think of anything more important, or of more lasting value, than to help the university attract world-class minds in the field of neuroregeneration.’ (Louis Lanzano/Associated Press)Rowling said she hopes the clinic will become “a world centre for excellence in the field of regenerative neurology.”

The university said Rowling’s gift is the largest single donation it has received.

In the spring and summer months, some people with multiple sclerosis are at a two to three times greater risk for disease activity, according to research published Monday in the journal Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The study, led by Dominik Meier, Ph.D. of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, examined MRI screenings and other data taken from 1991 to 1993. This was before the availability of current traditional therapies to modify the course of the disease. 44 people aged 25 to 52 living in Boston participated in the study. They had MRIs weekly to monthly over the course of a year. The researchers also included weather information in their study. MRIs are the primary tools used to monitor the disease progress, as they show the scarring, also called lesions.

“Not only were more lesions found during the spring and summer seasons, our study also found that warmer temperatures and solar radiation were linked to disease activity,” said Meier.

Saskatoon researcher Dr. Katherine Knox urged multiple sclerosis patients to have patience Wednesday, as a clinical trial of the so-called “liberation treatment” is years down the road, despite promised funding from the Saskatchewan government.

The biggest difficulty her team faces, she said, is that they don’t know how to test patients to see if they have the blocked veins which, according to the theory behind liberation treatment, are linked to the disease.

“The problem is that at the present time, we do not know how to accurately and reliably define venous abnormalities that may or may not be related to MS,” said Knox, who is the director of Saskatoon’s MS Clinic and the Cameco MS Neuroscience Research Centre, a research unit of the University of Saskatchewan.

DUBLIN (Dow Jones)–Elan Corp. PLC (ELN) Tuesday announced results of a test that could help determine whether multiple sclerosis patients will develop a rare brain disease before they decide to take Elan and joint venture partner Biogen Idec Inc.’s (BIIB) drug Tysabri.

According to research, samples from 17 patients were analyzed and shown to contain the JC Virus or be “anti-JCV antibody positive.” All 17 patients subsequently went on to contract the rare brain disease, known as PML, which means they wouldn’t have been good candidates for Tysabri.

About 50% of the population are thought to carry the JC Virus and Tysabri patients who don’t have the virus are thought to be at significantly lower risk of PML. The brain disease occurs when the virus attacks the central nervous system in people who have weakened immune systems.

“These data support our ongoing clinical studies to assess the clinical utility of this assay and our commitment to further mitigating the rare risk of PML in Tysabri-treated patients,” said Alfred Sandrock, senior vice president of neurology research and development at Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB).

Imagine waking up and not knowing what your body will let you do, whether your sight will be blurry or your hands numb, whether you’ll even have the energy to climb out of bed. This is the reality for the 2.5 million people around the world who are living with MS.

Real MS is an international campaign that aims to raise global awareness and recognition of the disease and demonstrate how life with MS can be redefined in a positive and fulfilling way.

Now research published online in the Annals of Neurology undermines the theory — called chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency by its creator, Italian researcher Paolo Zamboni.

In one study, conducted by German scientists, ultrasound imaging tests of the veins around the brains and nervous systems of 56 multiple sclerosis patients found that blood flow was normal in all but one person. A control group of 20 healthy patients had similar blood flow.

The second study, conducted in Sweden, used a different type of imaging test to compare blood flow in MS patients and a group of healthy people; both had similar amounts of blood vessel blockage.

In a striking departure from his political counterparts across the country, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says his government will finance clinical trials of liberation therapy, a contentious experimental procedure for multiple sclerosis patients.

“There isn’t unanimity on the issue, I understand that,” Mr. Wall said on Tuesday. “But … the province of Saskatchewan is willing to play a funding role.”

The move shunts Saskatchewan to the forefront of Canadian efforts to introduce a treatment that has researchers, politicians and the MS community divided over the roots of the mysterious nerve-wasting disease and the pace of Canadian medical research.

The new theory has taken off on the Internet, inspiring hope among patients, interest from some researchers and scorn from others. Supporters consider it an outside-the-box idea that could transform the treatment of the disease. Critics call it an outlandish notion that will probably waste time and money, and may harm patients.

These critics warn that multiple sclerosis has unpredictable attacks and remissions that make it devilishly hard to know whether treatments are working — leaving patients vulnerable to purported “cures” that do not work.

The controversy has exposed the deep frustration of many people with this incurable, disabling disease, who feel that research has let them down. It is a case study in the power of the Internet to inform and unite angry patients—which may be a double-edged sword. Pressure from activists helped persuade the Multiple Sclerosis Society to pay for studies of Dr. Zamboni’s theory, but the Internet buzz has also created an avid market for a therapy that is still unproved.

“There are a lot of people out there that have illnesses that are difficult to treat, impossible to cure,” Paul Hébert, editor-in-chief of the journal and co-author of the editorial, said in an interview. “The difficulty we now have is picking priorities.”

Bowing to pressure to allow widespread public access to the procedure before it’s been proven safe and effective in rigorous scientific trials could endanger patients and also create an expectation for a similar response each time a promising new treatment or procedure emerges, the editorial says.

At the same time, it’s unfair to completely block all patients from receiving the treatment they want, it says.