Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis Division/ Multiple Sclerosis Center
Department of Neurology
BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
725 Albany Street, Suite 7B
Boston, MA 02118
Phone: 617 638 8456

General description

The Department of Neurology has recently added a new division of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) comprised of 4 clinical faculty members.  Our MS center at Boston Medical Center received certification of “The Center for Comprehensive MS Care” from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society” in 2022.  The division participates in clinical/research studies focused on MS drug development and health-care disparities for people with MS.

Clinical faculty:

Konstantin Balashov, MD, PhD, FAAN, Division Chief and Director of MS Center
Pria Anand, MD
Kerin Flanagan, NP
William Tosches, MD, FAAN

Selected publications: 

Balashov, K.E., Smith, D.R., Khoury, S.J., Hafler, D.A., and H.L.Weiner. Increased interleukin 12 production in progressive multiple sclerosis: Induction by activated CD4+ T cells via CD40 ligand. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1997; 94: 599-603.

Smith, D.R., Balashov, K.E., Hafler, D.A., Khoury, S.J., and H.L.Weiner. Immune deviation following pulse cyclophosphamide/methylprednisolone treatment of multiple sclerosis: Increased IL-4 production and associated eosinophilia. Ann Neurol 1997; 42: 313-318.

Comabella, M., Balashov, K., Issazadeh, S., Smith, D., Weiner, H.L., and S.J.Khoury. Elevated interleukin-12 in progressive multiple sclerosis correlates with disease activity and is normalized by pulse cyclophosphamide therapy. J Clin Invest 1998; 102: 671-678.

Balashov, K.E., Olek, M.J., Smith, D.R., Khoury, S.J., and H.L.Weiner. Seasonal variation of IFN-gamma production in progressive multiple sclerosis. Ann Neurol 1998; 44: 824-828.

Balashov, K.E., Rottman, J.B., Weiner, H.L., and W.W.Hancock. CCR5+ and CXCR3+T cells are increased in multiple sclerosis and their ligands MIP-1-alpha and IP-10 are expressed in demyelinating brain lesions. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1999; 96: 6873-6878.

Balashov, K.E., Comabella, M., Ohashi, T., Khoury, S.J., and H.L.Weiner. Defective regulation of IFN-gamma and IL-12 by endogenous IL-10 in progressive MS. Neurology 2000; 55: 192-198.

Aung, L.L., Fitzgerald-Bocarsly, P., Dhib-Jalbut, S., and K. E. Balashov, Plasmacytoid dendritic cells in multiple sclerosis: Chemokine and chemokine receptor modulation by interferon-beta. J Neuroimmunol 2010, 226(1-2):158-64 (PMCID: PMC2937086).

Meier, D.S., Balashov, K., Healy, B.C., Weiner, H.L., and C.R.G. Guttmann.   Seasonal prevalence of MS disease activity. Neurology 2010; 75: 799–806 (PMCID: PMC2938966).

Balashov,K.E., Aung, L.L., Vaknin-Dembinsky, A., Dhib-Jalbut, S., Weiner, H.L. Interferon-beta inhibits Toll-like receptor 9 processing in multiple sclerosis. Ann Neurol 2010; 68: 899-906. (PMCID: PMC3058378)

Balashov, K.E., Aung L., Dhib-Jalbut S., and I.A. Keller. Acute multiple sclerosis lesion: Conversion of restricted diffusion due to vasogenic edema. J Neuroimaging 2011; 21: 202-4 (PMCID: PMC2891920).

Balashov, K.E. and E. Lindzen. Acute demyelinating lesions with restricted diffusion in multiple sclerosis. Multiple Sclerosis Journal 2012; 18(12):1745-53. (PMCID: PMC3576471)

Mandell, D., Tosches, W. Traumatic injuries among multiple sclerosis patients. Neurological Bullitin 2012; 4: 12-23. https://doi.org/10.7191/neurol_bull.2012.1038.

Aung, L.L. and K.E. Balashov. Decreased Dicer expression is linked to increased expression of co-stimulatory molecule CD80 on B cells in Multiple Sclerosis. Multiple Sclerosis Journal 2015; 21: 1131-1138. (PMCID: PMC4457720)

Aung, L.L., Mouradian, M.M., Dhib-Jalbut, S., and K.E. Balashov. MMP-9 expression is increased in B lymphocytes during multiple sclerosis exacerbation and is regulated by microRNA-320a. J Neuroimmunol. 2016:278; 185-189 (PMCID: PMC4297694)

Balashov, K.E. Imaging of central nervous system demyelinating disorders. Continuum (American Academy of Neurology)2016; 5 (Neuroimaging): 1613-1635. PMID: 27740991

Anand, P., Saylor, D. Multiple sclerosis and HIV: a case of multiple sclerosis-immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome associated with antiretroviral therapy initiation. International Journal of STD & AIDS 2018; 29: 929-932.

Balashov, K.E. Drugs in development for multiple sclerosis. Practical Neurology 2020; 2: 40-44.

Balashov, K., Dhib-Jalbut, S., Rybinnik, I., Fibrinolysis induced clinical improvement in a patient with multiple sclerosis exacerbation. Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders, 2020; 43: 102225-102227.

Yadav, S., Ito, N., Mindur, J., Kumar, H., Youssef, M., Suresh, S., Kulkarni, R., Rosario, Y., Balashov, K., Dhib-Jalbut, S., Ito, K. Fecal Lcn-2 level is a sensitive biological indicator for gut dysbiosis and intestinal inflammation in autoimmune neurological disorders. Front Immunol, 2022; 13, https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.1015372

Balashov, K., Rosario, Y. Management of Multiple Sclerosis in Pregnancy. In: Neurological Disorders in Pregnancy. G. Gupta et al, (eds). Springer Nature, Cham, Switzerland, pp 325-331, 2023 (ISBN 978-3-031-36489-1).