About the Authors

Pia Kivisäkk

Affiliation Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Katiana Francois

Affiliation Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Julvet Mbianda

Affiliation Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Roopali Gandhi

Affiliation Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Howard L. Weiner

Affiliations Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Partners Multiple Sclerosis Center, Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Samia J. Khoury

skhoury@rics.bwh.harvard.edu

Affiliations Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Partners Multiple Sclerosis Center, Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Abu Haidar Neuroscience Institute, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

Competing Interests

This study was supported by an investigator initiated research grant from Biogen Idec. Dr Kivisakk has received research support from EMD Serono. Dr Gandhi has received research support from EMD Serono, Novartis and Biogen. Dr Weiner has served as a consultant for Teva Neurosciences, Novartis, Biogen and EMD Serono, and has received grant support from EMD Sergono. Dr Khoury has served as a consultant for Epivax and Novartis. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: PK KF JM RG HLW SJK. Performed the experiments: PK KF JM. Analyzed the data: PK KF JM. Wrote the paper: PK KF JM RG HLW SJK.