June 7, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD #CMSC16 – Home DVD-Guided Exercise May Help Older MS Patients Improve Physical Function, Quality of Life Positive results from a home-based exercise intervention designed to target flexibility, toning, and balance for older adults with multiple sclerosis (MS), suggests that exercise is important for improving  patient quality of life. The study, “A Qualitative Study of a Home-Based DVD Exercise Intervention in Older Adults with Multiple Sclerosis,” was…
June 7, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD #CMSC16 – Fingolimod (Gilenya) Offers Consistent Health Benefits in Relapsing-Remitting MS Patients Researchers at the Swedish Neuroscience Institute in Washington and Novartis Pharma revealed that Gilenya (fingolimod) induced a consistent and significant reduction in disease activity in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). The results were recently presented at the June 1-4 Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) 2016 Annual…
June 7, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD #CMSC16 – MS Patients, Physical Therapists Have Distinct Decision-Making Processes for Improving Gait, Balance Understanding and combining decision-making processes of both patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and physical therapists to improve balance and gait — the movement of the lower limbs for locomotion — may help optimize patient outcomes. The findings were recently shown in an oral presentation titled “Understanding Engagement Decisions to Maximize Gait…
June 6, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD #CMSC16 – Genentech’s Ocrelizumab (Ocrevus) a Promising Therapy for Primary Progressive MS; Interview with Lead Researcher Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, was founded more than 35 years ago and has been focused on a variety of research fields, including cancer, immunology, neurodegenerative disorders, metabolic diseases, and infectious diseases. Genentech has been committed to discovering and developing new medicines for patients with major diseases of the nervous…
June 6, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD #CMSC16 – Assessing and Treating Psychiatric Disorders in MS Patients May Improve Prognosis, Quality of Life Assessing and treating psychiatric disorders in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) may improve their quality of life and disease prognosis, according to researchers at Harvard Medical School, who presented their work titled “Neuropsychiatric Disorders in Multiple Sclerosis: Assessment and Management” at the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC)…
June 6, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD #CMSC16 – Novel Model of Home Care for Patients with Progressive MS Proven Beneficial, Increased Patients’ Satisfaction A new model of care implemented to address the needs of patients with progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) and their caregivers has proven beneficial by reducing hospital stays, avoiding major care expenses, and improving patients’ satisfaction. The model has been tested in MS patients with high disability scores, and preliminary results of…
June 3, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD #CMSC16 – Interview with Bayer’s VP and General Manager on Betaconnect/Betaseron and Customized Therapy Global pharma Bayer Healthcare aims to improve human health by diagnosing, preventing, and treating a variety of diseases. The company currently provides products for general medicine, hematology, neurology, oncology, and women’s healthcare. In 1993, Bayer’s Betaseron (interferon beta-1b) became the first disease-modifying drug to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for…
June 3, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD #CMSC16 – Home Evaluation Prototype to Improve At-home Rehabilitation After Hospitalization Researchers at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta are developing a prototype that addresses physical and cognitive parameters, daily routines, and homes of patients to better implement rehabilitation within the home environment. The study was presented in “Functional Home Evaluation: Missing Pieces in Treatment and Transition Processes” during the Consortium…
June 3, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD #CMSC16 – Visual Assessment May Provide Information on Cognitive Function in MS Patients Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found that visual function in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients correlates with cognitive function ands suggests that disease severity and outcomes of neuroprotective therapies in MS patients may be assessed through visual function measurements. The findings were recently presented in the oral presentation “…
June 3, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD #CMSC16 – Susan Bennett On the Importance of Exercise for MS Patients Susan E. Bennett, a specialist in multiple sclerosis (MS) rehabilitation, reinforced the importance of exercise for MS patients to improve quality of life, during the June 1-4  2016 Annual Meeting of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC), in National Harbor, Md. “Everybody should be exercising. If you have MS it…
June 3, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD #CMSC16 – Sleep Quality in MS Patients Reported to Impact Memory, Perception, Functional Abilities Poor sleep quality may be associated with impaired memory and decreased functional abilities in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, according to the study “Impact of Sleep Quality on Cognitive and Physical Function in Individuals with Multiple Sclerosis.” The study was presented during the Whitaker Research Track Session II at the…
June 3, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD #CMSC16 – Treadmill Walking Improves Cognitive Processing in MS Patients Treadmill walking exercise training is beneficial for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, increasing not only their cardiorespiratory fitness, but also their cognitive processing speed, according to the study “Systematically Developed Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of Exercise and Cognition in Persons with Multiple Sclerosis,” recently presented at the Consortium of Multiple…
June 3, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD #CMSC16 – Robot-assisted Rehabilitation May Improve MS Patient Locomotor Function Robot-assisted training may be an effective therapy to improve motor function in the lower limbs of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), and help in rehabilitation, according to the study “Robot-Guided Rehabilitation Improves Sensorimotor Functions in Lower-Limb Impairments of Individuals with Multiple Sclerosis,” presented at the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers…
June 3, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD #CMSC16 – Medical Affairs VP at EMD Serono Discusses MS Drug Rebif, MS LifeLines Support in Exclusive Interview EMD Serono, the U.S. and Canadian subsidiary and biopharmaceutical business of Merck KGaA, focuses exclusively on specialty care. With expertise in fertility, endocrinology, oncology and neurology, the company is featuring several innovative products with therapeutic potential in the oncology, immuno-oncology, and immunology fields. Rebif (interferon beta-1a), EMD Serono’s therapy for patients with relapsing…
May 25, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Mitochon Raises $1.6M to Begin Clinical Tests of Mitochondrial Modulators for MS Mitochon Pharmaceuticals announced the completion of a second year of financing, raising a total $1.6 million to advance its lead compound, MP101, a mitochondrial targeted neuro-protective agent, into clinical testing. The company is developing mitochondrial modulators for patients with neurodegenerative diseases ranging from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s to multiple sclerosis (MS). A number of studies have…
May 24, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD New Research Center at UC San Diego to Focus on Microbiome and Immunology The University of California (UC) San Diego School of Medicine and Chiba University School of Medicine, Japan, are working together to establish a new center for immunology research, with a particular focus on the microbiome and mucosal immune responses that are known to play a crucial role in a variety of diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS). “This…
May 23, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Relapses Prevented in Multiple Sclerosis Mouse Model Researchers at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, recently showed that peripheral blood cells loaded with a drug that resembles the myelin protein are able to inhibit harmful immune responses and prevent relapses in a mouse model of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS). The findings were described in the study “…
May 18, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Gut Microbiota in Young MS Patients Is Higher in Pro-Inflammatory Bacteria Than Usual, Study Finds Children and adolescents with multiple sclerosis (MS) differ from others in the composition of their gut flora, with higher levels of inflammation-causing bacteria and lower levels of anti-inflammatory bacteria, according to a study from  the University of British Columbia, Canada. The findings, supporting previous hypotheses that the composition of the gut microbial community could influence the development…
May 17, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Study of Immune System Response to Viral Infection Revives Possibility of Link Between MS and Viruses Researchers investigating immune B-cell response to the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) found that it may correlate with the amount of brain-specific B-cells in the blood — a marker of multiple sclerosis (MS) — and with higher disease activity. The findings were published in the journal Viruses, in…
May 11, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Diet Plays a Role in MS Progression Through Its Impact on Astrocytes, Researchers Say Dietary habits and the composition of the gut flora can influence neuroinflammation and affect the outcome of neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a study published in the journal Nature Medicine and titled “Type I interferons and microbial metabolites of tryptophan modulate astrocyte activity and central nervous…
May 9, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD Combined Use of Imaging Techniques Allows Scientists to Peer Into Myelin Formation The evolution of the myelin sheath throughout childhood has been visualized in vivo for a first time, according to findings reported in the study “Mapping an index of the myelin g-ratio in infants using magnetic resonance imaging,” published in the journal NeuroImage. To function well, nerve cells in the brain rely on…
May 5, 2016 News by Inês Martins, PhD New Phase 2 Trial of a B-cell Antibody, TG-1101, to Treat Relapsing MS Getting Underway TG Therapeutics recently announced the opening of a new clinical trial evaluating TG-1101, its glycoengineered anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). The Phase 2 clinical trial, titled “A Placebo-Controlled Multi-Center Phase 2 Dose Finding Study of Ublituximab, a Third-Generation Anti-CD20 Monoclonal Antibody, in Patients…