FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Susie Wyss used to inject herself daily with a medication for multiple sclerosis.

“The injection hurt. It caused welts, bruises, and sometimes permanent lipoatrophy,” Wyss told more than 800 people gathered in Boca Raton last week to raise awareness for multiple sclerosis and money for research. “Today, I’m on a newer medication that reduces relapses by a greater percentage. And it’s an infusion that I only do every 6 months.”

Researchers have made more advancements in multiple sclerosis in the last five years than in the previous 70 years. This disease of the brain and immune system has been debilitating for people of all ages — particularly young women — whose vision and motor strength are often affected. Wyss, a former Bradenton fitness instructor who received a diagnosis 12 years ago at age 54, said the medication she takes prevents her from being more disabled.

“I have personally benefited from these breakthroughs,” Wyss said. “I feel fortunate to live at a time when we have so many disease-modifying medications that were just not available a few decades ago.”

More than 20 different disease-modifying therapies are now approved to treat MS. The treatments range from oral medications to infusions to help ward off relapses, slow down the disease progression, and ease inflammation in the central nervous system.

With new theories about MS’ inner workings, researchers also believe they may soon be able to reverse MS symptoms or even treat the disease before it begins.

“The acceleration of breakthroughs is leading to important changes,” said Robin Nunley, president of Mid and South Florida for the National MS Society. “We have never been closer to a cure for MS.”

At the Boca Raton fundraiser, Michael Weiss, CEO of TG Therapeutics, accepted a Hope Award on behalf of his company, which has developed an IV injection called Briumvi for relapsing forms of the disease. The FDA approved Briumvi two years ago. Weiss’ company plans to start a clinical trial this year to test a cell therapy it is developing for progressive forms of MS.

Weiss said getting Briumvi approved by the FDA was a challenging task. “It took us 10 years and $1.5 billion in research and development. We persevered mostly on the stories of the patients and how this drug was impacting them in trials.”

With MS, the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the myelin, a protective sheath that covers nerve fibers. It is two to three times more common in women than men, and researchers are still trying to understand why. Some studies point to the roles of female hormones, a lack of vitamin D, inflammation and even obesity as potential factors.

Men, though, can get it too.

As a young girl, singer Gloria Estefan cared for her father as he struggled with multiple sclerosis while her mother worked. He was only 36 when diagnosed. Estefan wants to bring awareness to the disease and spoke about it at the National MS Society fundraiser In Boca Raton. Estefan said multiple U.S. Army members who fought alongside her father in Vietnam also developed it. “To this day, there’s uncertainty about whether Agent Orange may have served as a trigger for his MS and the MS of all the young men that were in that base with him,” she told the crowd.

Estefan said there were no medications for the disease when her father was diagnosed. “It was quite a challenge at the time,” she said. Her father, José Fajardo, passed away in 1980 at the age of 47.

“I am hoping in my lifetime, we will see that cure for MS … we have never been closer to preventing MS and reversing the course of the disease,” Estefan said. “We have never been more focused on progressive MS treatments and accelerating the progress towards cures for everyone living with MS.”

Nunley said the money raised from the Boca fundraiser goes towards research as well as patient navigators who can link anyone with the disease to neurologists and treatment. It also funds scholarships for medical students who want to study neurology. Nunley estimates about 60,000 in Florida are living with the disease.

One of them is Selena Buongiorno, a neuroscience physician assistant and researcher at Premiere Research Institute at Palm Beach Neurology. She was diagnosed with MS four years ago at age 35.

“Everyone is different, but I had numbness in both my hands and my right foot,” Buongiorno said.

To manage her disease, she gets an infusion called Ocrevus every six months and exercises regularly. “I did primary care for 9 1/2 years and made a change to help people with my disease and contribute towards the research needed to help find a cure.”

She says her research focuses on medication that will target multiple aspects of the disease, including keeping it from progressing and reducing inflammation.

Nunley at the National MS Society said awareness is becoming increasingly critical, particularly because the disease can be challenging to diagnose. Symptoms include fatigue, difficulty with balance, neuropathic pain, and muscle weakness.

Wyss said doctors had been treating her for months for a back injury rather than recognizing disease symptoms. “If you are diagnosed early and get on medication to slow progression, your outcome is better,” she said.

Exercise and physical therapy often are part of treatment, too.

Wyss said she worked for five years doing physical training to help her get out of a wheelchair. Today, she is a cyclist and leads a team in an annual biking fundraiser for the disease. “It took a lot to walk again and then to ride,” she said. “It is different for everyone, but there’s a lot of hope.”

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