MS News that Caught My Eye Last Week: An MS Program for Young Adults, Rituximab Report, Repairing Myelin, and Reducing Inflammation

Organizations Join Forces to Launch New Adventure Program for Young MS Patients

It seems we too often ignore the needs of younger people who have MS. (I’ve written a couple of columns about this.) This program isn’t a medical approach, but it may serve some other needs of these young MS patients.

Young adults living with multiple sclerosis (MS) will now be able to experience a variety of outdoor adventures thanks to a new adventure-based healing program created through a partnership between Velocity Global and First Descents.

First Descents offers free trips to young cancer patients to help empower them and give them strength to face their disease. These outdoor adventures, which include kayaking, surfing, and rock climbing, can be life-changing for participants. Now the nonprofit is expanding its program offerings to young MS patients.

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Rituximab Seen to Ably and Safely Treat Refractory RRMS Patients in French Study

Rituximab (sold in the U.S. as Rituxan and in Europe as MabThera), is usually used to treat a form of cancer. But it’s also used off-label to treat MS when other therapies have failed. This French study reports the medication seems to be effective and safe for MS.

An approved lymphoma treatment, rituximab, was found to be effective and safe for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients whose active disease has failed to respond to immunosuppressive therapies, a retrospective French study reports.

Published in the Multiple Sclerosis Journal in an article titled, “Efficacy of rituximab in refractory RRMS,” the study is part of the French Observatory of Multiple Sclerosis (OFSEP) project.

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Molecule Whose Fragments Appear to Block Myelin Repair Identified in Study

In order to discover a substance that can repair damaged myelin, it probably would be a good idea to clear out anything in the body that would block that effort. These researchers think they may have found one of those roadblocks.

A molecule responsible for preventing the repair of white matter in the brain, a process critical to treating multiple sclerosis (MS) and cerebral palsy, has been identified.

The research, “A TLR/AKT/FoxO3 immune tolerance-like pathway disrupts the repair capacity of oligodendrocyte progenitors,” was published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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New Class of Anti-inflammatory Compounds May Help Halt Inflammation in MS, Study Suggests

Currently, the standard treatment to reduce MS inflammation, and reverse flares or exacerbations, is a course of steroids. But this research on mice holds out the promise that there could be another way to reduce chronic inflammation.

A new class of indoline derivatives shows potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities capable of decreasing inflammation in the brain, new research shows.

This finding highlights the potential of the new compounds in chronic inflammatory diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (MS).

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