About the Authors

Matilde Inglese

matilde.inglese@mssm.edu

Affiliations Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States of America, Department of Radiology Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States of America, Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States of America, Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, and Mother-Child health, University of Genoa, and IRCCS Azienda Ospedale Università San Martino-IST, Genova, Italy

Maria Petracca

Contributed equally to this work with: Maria Petracca, Enricomaria Mormina

Affiliation Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States of America

Enricomaria Mormina

Contributed equally to this work with: Maria Petracca, Enricomaria Mormina

Affiliations Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States of America, Department of Biomedical Sciences and of Morphologic and Functional Images, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

Anat Achiron

Affiliations Multiple Sclerosis Center, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel

Rebecca Straus-Farber

Affiliation Department of Neurology, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States of America

Shmuel Miron

Affiliation Multiple Sclerosis Center, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel

Michelle Fabian

Affiliation Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States of America

Stephen Krieger

Affiliation Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States of America

Aaron Miller

Affiliation Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States of America

Fred Lublin

Affiliation Department of Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States of America

Maria Pia Sormani

Affiliation Biostatistics Unit, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy

Competing Interests

Dr. Matilde Inglese has received research grants from NIH, NMSS, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., Teva Neuroscience, Noto Foundation. Dr. Maria Petracca has received a research fellowship from FISM. Dr Enricomaria Mormina has nothing to disclose. Dr. Anat Achiron has nothing to disclose. Dr Rebecca Straus-Farber has nothing to disclose. Dr Shmuel Miron has nothing to disclose. Dr. Michelle Fabian has nothing to disclose. Dr. Stephen Krieger has served as a consultant for Acorda Therapeutics, Bayer, Biogen, EMD Serono, Genentech, Genzyme Corporation, Novartis, and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. He has participated in Industry-Sponsored Non-Promotional, Non-Marketing Lectures for Genzyme Corporation, Genentech, and Biogen Idec. Dr. Aaron Miller has served as a consultant and/or participant in advisory board meetings for Genzyme/sanofi-aventis, Biogen Idec, Glaxo Smith Kline, EMD Serono (Merck Serono), Novartis, ONO, Acorda, Nuron Biotech,Teva, Questcor, and Accordant Health Services. He has received research support from Acorda, Novartis, Genentech, Genzyme/sanofi-aventis, Biogen Idec, Roche, and Questcor. He has served as Editor of Continuum, a continuing medical education publication of the AAN and currently serves as Editor of Continuum Audio. He is a member of the editorial board of Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders. He occasionally performs expert reviews of medical records or serves as an expert witness in medical malpractice cases. Dr. Fred Lublin Sources of Funding for Research: Acorda Therapeutics, Inc.; Biogen Idec; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp; Teva Neuroscience, Inc.; Genzyme; Sanofi; Celgene; NIH; NMSS; Consulting Agreements/Advisory Boards/DSMB: Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals; Biogen Idec; EMD Serono, Inc.; Novartis; Teva Neuroscience; Actelion; Sanofi-Aventis; Acorda; Questcor; Roche, Genentech; Celgene; Johnson & Johnson; Revalesio; Coronado Bioscience, Genzyme, MedImmune; Bristol-Myers Squibb, Xenoport, Receptos; Forward Pharma; Co-Chief Editor: Multiple Sclerosis and Related Diseases; Stock Ownership: Cognition Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Maria Pia Sormani received consulting fees from Novartis, Biogen, TEVA, Merck Serono, Genzyme, Roche, Geneuro, Vertex and research grant from Merck Serono. This study was supported in part by Novartis Pharmaceuticals (CFTY20DUSNC15T), National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS RG 5120A3/1), and the Noto Foundation to MI and by a research fellowship from Fondazione Italiana Sclerosi Multipla (2013/B/7) to MP. Novartis Pharmaceuticals funding does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: MI MPS FL. Data curation: MI MP EM AA RS SM MF SK AM FL MPS. Formal analysis: MPS. Funding acquisition: MI. Investigation: MI MP EM AA RS SM MF SK AM FL MPS. Methodology: MI MPS. Project administration: MI. Resources: MI. Supervision: MI. Validation: MI MPS. Visualization: MI MP EM. Writing – original draft: MI MP MPS. Writing – review & editing: MI MP EM AA RS SM MF SK AM FL MPS.