September 2, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Inflammation Fighters in Blood Cells Seen to Attack in Entirely New Way To reach tissues infected with foreign agents, neutrophils, the body’s first line of defense, need to travel through vessel walls — and do so by switching on a class of adhesion receptors, called integrins, that bind to other adhesion molecules at the surface of the capillary walls. Now, in a recent paper published…
August 29, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Gilenya-like Therapy Shows Benefit in Secondary Progressive MS Patients in Phase 3 Trial Patients with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) who were treated with BAF312 (siponimod), a sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) inhibitor, in a Phase 3 clinical trial showed a  significantly reduced risk for disability progression compared to placebo, Novartis recently announced. BAF312 is a selective modulator of specific types of the S1P receptor. This receptor is…
August 23, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Only 47% of Primary Care Doctors in England ‘Confident’ in Treating MS Patients General practitioners (GPs) in England lack confidence in initially assessing and referring onward people with neurological symptoms, especially those with multiple sclerosis, and believe they could benefit from better training in identifying and managing neurological patients. One result, according to a report published by the Neurological Alliance, titled “Neurology and primary care: improving the…
August 22, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Umbilical Cord Blood-derived Cell Therapy Promotes Remyelination in Mice A cell therapy product derived from human umbilical cord blood cells may be a promising treatment approach for patients with demyelinating diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (MS) or leukodystrophy, according to a recent study developed at the Duke University Medical Center. The study, “A cord blood monocyte–derived cell…
August 19, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD MS Progression Slower in People Who Begin Betaseron Therapy at First Signs of Disease, 11-Year Study Says Relapsing multiple sclerosis patients who begin taking Betaferon/Betaseron (interferon beta-1b) immediately after the first MS-related neurologic symptoms appear may realize slower disease progression than those who delay treatment, according to a study evaluating the therapy’s effects over a decade in patients enrolled in a Phase 3 clinical trial. The study, “The 11-year long-term follow-up…
August 11, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Improving Confidence of RRMS Patients May Enhance Quality of Life, Decrease Depression, Study Finds Increasing a person’s confidence that they can complete tasks and reach goals in specific situations may benefit patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). In a new study, researchers used an intensive three-day social cognitive treatment, called Can Do, to increase patients’ self-efficacy, which resulted in long lasting improvements in their health-related…
August 9, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Tysabri’s Success in Impairing the Immune System in RRMS May Be Source of Its Problems Although Tysabri (natalizumab) is a highly effective in treating patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), some may develop progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). According to a new study, this occurs because Tysabri impairs immune surveillance in the central nervous system and reactivates the latent John Cunningham polyomavirus (JCV). The study, “Natalizumab Affects…
August 8, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Best First-Line Treatment for Aggressive MS May Be Equally Aggressive Immunotherapies Patients with aggressive onset multiple sclerosis, characterized by a rapidly progressing disease course and accumulation of disability, may benefit from early aggressive therapies instead of the escalation approach commonly given multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, according to researchers at Weill-Cornell Medical College. Their article, titled “A study of patients with…
August 3, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Cornell Scientists Tag and Track Lipid Signaling in Cells, a Possible Force in MS Development Understanding lipid signaling in multiple sclerosis (MS) may be the key to developing more effective therapies for the disease. New work by researchers at Cornell University could bring us closer to unraveling the role of lipids in MS development. Lipids are fat molecules that compose the cellular membranes and surround each organelle inside…
August 1, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Genentech Enrolling Relapsing MS Patients in Study of Mechanism of Action for Ocrevus In addition to a new study sponsored by Genentech to test the experimental MS therapy Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) in RMS patients who have had a sub-optimal response to previous disease modifying therapies, the company is also currently recruiting patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis to understand the therapy’s mechanism of action and B-cell biology…
July 29, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Increasing Disability in MS Matched by Rising Financial, Personal and Work-related Burdens Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in the U.S. with higher disability scores also have higher rates of health resource utilization, higher healthcare costs, and lower work productivity and health-related quality of live, according a study by researchers at Adelphi Real World and Abbvie. The study, “Quantifying the…
July 22, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Disease Modifying Drugs Seen to Help Protect MS Patients with Benign Status from Greater Disability Women with multiple sclerosis (MS) and people diagnosed with the disease at a younger age are more likely to have a benign course of MS, remaining fully functional for decades after disease onset, according to researchers at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in New York. Disease modifying drugs were also found…
July 21, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Study of Potential Therapy for Relapsing MS That Targets B-Cells Now Recruiting Patients in US Patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS) are being recruited for a clinical trial evaluating an experimental monoclonal antibody called ublituximab, the National MS Society announced in a recent news release. The study, being conducted at seven U.S. sites, will enroll at least 24 patients, but this number can go up to 100. MS is considered to be…
July 20, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Study That May Benefit MS Patients Awarded Grant from National Stem Cell Foundation A research project that aims to explore how astrocytes can be manipulated to stop or prevent neurodegeneration has received a grant from the National Stem Cell Foundation (NSCF). The project will be conducted by the The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute. The work developed by Dr. Valentina…
July 15, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Gut Microbiome in MS Patients Seen to Favor Inflammatory Bacteria in Study A link indeed appears to exist between multiple sclerosis (MS) and unusual changes in the bacterial composition of the gut, according to researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). In their study, “Alterations of the human gut microbiome in multiple sclerosis,” published in the journal Nature Communications,…
July 13, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Side Effects and Convenience of MS Therapies Seen to Determine Patients’ Adherence to Them Despite the existence of several disease-modifying drugs for people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), patients’ satisfaction plays a critical role in their adherence to treatment. Improving adherence should be a major concern in the clinic to prevent patients from evolving to more debilitating stages of the disease. A team of researchers in Germany report that side…
July 8, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Brain Atrophy in MS Patients May Soon Be More Easily and Routinely Examined Detecting brain atrophy in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients requires high quality scans, too expensive and complicated for routine clinical use. But this may change with a new software that simplifies the calculation of brain atrophy based on data from routine magnetic resonance images (MRI). The new tool and its benefits were recently described…
July 6, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD ICER Draft Report Evaluating Therapies for RRMS Now Open for Public Comment The Institute of Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) released the early draft of a paper intended to inform a future report evaluating the effectiveness and value of disease-modifying therapies for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). The paper, called a draft scoping document, is titled “Disease Modifying Therapies for Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis: Effectiveness and…
July 5, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Tremors Linked to MS Poorly Treated with Symptomatic Medication, Study Finds Disabling tremors can affect as many as half of all people with multiple sclerosis (MS), but they are inadequately treated because of limited therapeutic options and are not sufficiently being studied, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham reported. Their report, “Symptomatic Management of Multiple Sclerosis-Associated Tremor Among…
July 1, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Childhood Obesity Linked to Higher Risk of Multiple Sclerosis, Possibly by Altering Vitamin D Levels Obese children and young adults appear to be at a considerably higher risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS), according to researchers at the McGill University in Canada and collaborators at the University of Bristol in the U.K., who found a causal relationship between the two. Their study, “…
June 30, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Vaccine to Treat Multiple Sclerosis Showing Promise and Soon to Enter Phase 3 Clinical Testing A therapeutic vaccine for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), called Xemys, is showing positive results in pre-clinical and clinical trials, and is soon to enter Phase 3 clinical testing. Xemys was developed by researchers at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences and their colleagues. While traditional vaccines are…
June 29, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD 1st Potential Therapy for Primary Progressive MS, Ocrelizumab, Under Priority Review by FDA The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is giving priority review to a request to approve Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) as a treatment for both forms of multiple sclerosis, the drug’s developer, Genentech, announced. If the company’s Biologics License Application (BLA) is approved, Ocrevus will become the first drug able to treat patients with either relapsing or…
June 27, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Fingolimod (Gilenya) Seen to Promote Peripheral Nerve Regeneration in Mice, Aiding Remyelination Fingolimod (Gilenya), a drug approved for patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) to prevent neuroinflammation, may also help these patients by directly enhancing nerve regeneration and increasing myelination in a way that is partly independent of its anti-inflammatory properties. The study reporting this finding, “Fingolimod promotes peripheral nerve regeneration…
June 24, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Study Finds PoNS Neurostimulator Plus Physical Therapy of Benefit to Advanced MS Patients Helius Medical Technologies announced results of a pilot study, demonstrating the benefits of PoNS Therapy — a combination of the investigational Portable Neuromodulation Stimulator (PoNS) device with physical therapy — in patients with advanced multiple sclerosis (MS). Specifically, the treatment was seen to improve both patients’ quality of life, and physical and…
June 22, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Fatigue That Troubles MS Patients Linked to Other Ills Stemming from the Disease Fatigue, the most commonly reported symptom in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), is associated with disease comorbidities such as depression, irritable bowel syndrome, migraine, and anxiety, according to the study “Fatigue and Comorbidities in Multiple Sclerosis,” recently published in the International Journal of MS Care.
June 16, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD New PET Tracers May Work to Detect Neuroinflammation in Brains of MS Patients Novel molecular imaging compounds that detect neuroinflammation in the brain of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients have been developed by researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in Missouri, and may help to uncover the triggers of such inflammation and to better evaluate new disease treatments. The study, “Development and…
June 14, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Myelination Relies on Mechanical Stimuli Like That Used for Bone Repair, Study Finds Researchers at the University of Buffalo’s Hunter James Kelly Research Institute (HJKRI) discovered that the cells that form myelin in the nervous system respond to mechanical stimulation by activating molecules from a specific pathway, which are transferred to the nucleus, triggering myelination. The findings, which may be key to developing new therapies…
June 10, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Targeting Immune Cells Begins Phase 1 Trial Arrien Pharmaceuticals has initiated Phase 1 clinical trials of their first agent, ARN-6039, a molecule that targets a specific subset of immune cells called T helper 17 (Th17), for the potential treatment of patients with relapsing, remitting, and progressive multiple sclerosis (MS). A growing body of evidence has suggested a…
June 8, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD #CMSC16 – Tai Chi Shown to Improve Balance and Strength in MS Patients Researchers at Texas Woman’s University identified tai chi as a beneficial therapy for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with impaired balance, as it can improve their endurance and strength and decrease fatigue. The results of the study, “The Benefit of Tai Chi for Balance and Gait in People with…
June 8, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD #CMSC16 – MS Patients’ Speech Limitations and Difficulty in Swallowing May Be Measured Through Phoneme Rate Production Researchers from Mount Sinai Rehabilitation Hospital found that patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) who complain of speech limitations or difficulty in swallowing cannot produce specific phonemes, which may be a helpful way of objectively quantifying these symptoms in MS patients. The findings were recently reported in an oral presentation titled “Rate of…