October 20, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Costs of ‘COVID-19 gap’ in MS expected to top $500M in Canada The overall financial impact of changes in treatment and delayed diagnoses for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) in Canada due to the COVID-19 pandemic likely will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars between 2020 and 2024 in terms of extra healthcare costs and lost productivity, as well…
October 20, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Machine learning used to estimate when brain shrinkage begins Brain atrophy (shrinkage) in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) begins on average more than five years before disease symptoms appear, according to a new study based on machine learning models. “Although the onset of progressive brain tissue loss measured by MRI is not synonymous with the true biological…
October 19, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: Foralumab seen to ease brain inflammation in SPMS Six months of treatment with foralumab, administered into the nose, led to decreases in microglial activity in five of six people with nonactive secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) involved in an expanded access program. Microglia are resident immune cells in the brain believed to play a role in driving…
October 18, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: New research may help explain EBV and MS link New research by scientists in Austria may shed light on the link between the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and multiple sclerosis (MS), and explain why only some people infected with EBV — previously found to raise the risk of MS by 32 times — go on to develop the neurodegenerative disorder. Distinct…
October 17, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: Blood biomarker may help to predict disability in MS Blood levels of neurofilament light chain (NfL), a marker of nerve damage, were seen to increase about a year or two prior to disability worsening in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), particularly among patients whose disease progressed without any relapse activity. That’s according to new data presented at the…
October 17, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: Early high-efficacy treatment helps to slow disability in pediatric-onset MS Use of high-efficacy therapies can lower the risk of disability progression in people with childhood-onset multiple sclerosis (MS), particularly if given in early disease stages when disabling symptoms are negligible. That’s according to data shared at the 9th joint meeting of the European Committee for Treatment and…
October 17, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: Fenebrutinib lowers new lesions in relapsing MS Treatment with the investigational therapy fenebrutinib significantly reduced the number of new inflammatory lesions visible on MRI scans in people with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). Pharmacological data from the study suggest the anti-inflammatory experimental medication can get into the brain and spinal cord at levels high…
October 16, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: More disease activity when treatment stopped A clinical trial that was testing if treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS) could be discontinued in people with stable disease was terminated early after several patients who stopped treatment saw new disease activity. The findings support the continued use of disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) even by those who haven’t…
October 13, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: Personalized dosing of Tysabri shows good efficacy A personalized dosing schedule for Tysabri (natalizumab) that aims to maintain blood levels of the drug above a certain threshold seems to be just as effective for controlling disease activity in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) as the approved every-four-week dosing schedule. That’s according to interim data from an…
October 13, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: Treating SPMS with OCH shows promise in small study Five of six people with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) treated with an experimental oral therapy called OCH saw no disease activity over six months in a small clinical trial. That’s compared with 0% of the SPMS patients given a placebo, according to new data presented by Tomoko Okamoto,…
October 12, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: Under-the-skin Ocrevus found to be powerful in MS A new under-the-skin formulation of Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) — administered in 10 minutes — is at least as effective as the approved intravenous, or into-the-vein, formulation among people with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to new clinical trial data. Most people given either the new subcutaneous formulation or the intravenous…
October 12, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: EBV may trigger attack on brain protein ANO2 Infection with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) may prime the immune system to accidentally attack a brain protein called ANO2, new research shows. The findings may explain how EBV infection can lead to developing multiple sclerosis (MS), at least in some patients. Daniel Jons, PhD, a scientist at the…
October 11, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: Vidofludimus calcium lowers RRMS nerve damage Six months of treatment with the experimental oral therapy vidofludimus calcium (IMU-838) led to significant reductions in a marker of nerve damage among people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), according to a new analysis of data from a Phase 2 clinical trial. Previous data indicated the therapy significantly reduced…
October 6, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Progression without relapses drives most disability worsening in MS Most disability worsening events happen independent of relapse activity across all types of multiple sclerosis (MS), including clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) and early relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), a new study reports. The findings challenge the idea that relapses are the main driver of disability worsening in early relapsing…
October 5, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Sexual dysfunction in MS occurs at similar rates in all age groups Problems with sexual dysfunction are a concern for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients of all ages, but the issues tend to have distinct causes as people age, a new study highlights. The study, “Age-Related Differences in the Severity of Sexual Dysfunction Symptoms and Psychological Distress in Individuals with…
October 4, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS MS patients in UK less likely to be on treatment, new study shows People with multiple sclerosis (MS) in the United Kingdom are less likely to be on disease-modifying treatments (DMTs) compared with MS patients in other countries in Europe, a new study reports. “We know that getting early treatment with disease-modifying MS therapies can improve long term health and wellbeing.
October 2, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Viral protein blocks myelin repair, activates inflammation in models The expression of a viral protein known as W-Env leads to the inflammatory activation of brain cells and impairs myelin repair in mouse models of multiple sclerosis (MS), a study reports. “Our study shows that the presence of W-Env in the brains of MS patients appears to generate a…
October 2, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Most disability worsening on Ocrevus not tied to relapses: Study Among multiple sclerosis (MS) patients treated with Ocrevus (ocrelizumab), most of the disability worsening they experience is not associated with any relapse activity, according to an analysis of real-world data. “We present real-world data from our multiple sclerosis center underlining that in a typical population of relapsing MS…
September 28, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Lemtrada controlled RRMS disease activity more than a decade Over more than a decade of treatment with Lemtrada (alemtuzumab), relapse rates were low and about half of people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) remained free of confirmed disability worsening, according to final results from the open-label TOPAZ clinical trial. “To our knowledge, this report represents the longest…
September 27, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Neurologists share treatment preferences for older adults with MS For older adults with multiple sclerosis (MS) who have highly active disease, most neurologists recommend starting treatment with a high-efficacy therapy, according to a survey study. Neurologists also generally agreed that patients with MS should continue on treatment into the latter decades of life, and that older MS patients…
September 26, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS MS symptoms can fluctuate with Ocrevus, but ‘wearing off’ not likely People with multiple sclerosis (MS) under treatment with Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) commonly experience fluctuations in the severity of their symptoms — but these changes aren’t related to the timing of Ocrevus infusions, a study reports. Although many patients on Ocrevus report a ‘wearing off’ effect between infusions, findings suggest…
September 25, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Specific genes allow immune T-cells to infiltrate the brain, study finds Researchers have identified nearly two dozen genes that help to control the movement of immune cells into the brain and spinal cord during multiple sclerosis (MS). Findings may form the basis for the further development of MS treatments that aim to reduce disease activity by blocking the infiltration…
September 19, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Taking sugar molecule supplements may help ease inflammation in MS Taking supplements of the sugar molecule N-acetylglucosamine, known as GlcNAc, was found to decrease markers of inflammation in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) in a small clinical trial. Moreover, nearly a third of trial participants reported less severe disability following a month of daily GlcNAc supplements. However, because this…
September 14, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ‘Inverse vaccine’ approach lowers disease in MS mouse model Note: This story was updated Sept. 15, 2023, to clarify ANK-700 was developed based on the preclinical work described in the study. An “inverse vaccine” that’s designed to teach the immune system not to attack a specific target, effectively reduced disease activity in mouse models of multiple sclerosis (MS),…
September 11, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS New method may be better at measuring disability improvement A new statistical method could help to more accurately capture changes in disability severity for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and monitor the impact of MS treatments. “With the use of this new statistical methodology, it is possible to estimate the time to improvement as well as the…
September 8, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Study finds new molecular mechanism involved in myelin repair A protein called Daam2 helps to regulate the activity of cells in the brain that make myelin, the fatty covering around nerve fibers that’s damaged in multiple sclerosis (MS), a new study shows. By uncovering how that protein functions in the brain to boost myelin repair, researchers have discovered…
September 6, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Octave’s blood test accurately captures MS disease activity: Study A test that assesses the levels of 18 proteins in the blood and uses artificial intelligence algorithms can help to measure the level of new disease activity in multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a new study. The test, developed by …
September 1, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Is Aubagio still ethical to use as comparator in MS trials? Noting that Aubagio (teriflunomide) continues to have “a robust impact on disability progression” in multiple sclerosis (MS) despite being eclipsed by newer MS treatments in trials, an international team of researchers are now arguing that it is, in fact, still ethical to use the older therapy as a…
August 30, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS New MRI technique effectively maps myelin content in MS brains A new system that can use MRI scans to effectively measure myelin content in brain tissue may help assess the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) and evaluate the effectiveness of treatments. The technique was described in “Quantitative magnetic resonance mapping of the myelin bilayer,” which…
August 29, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Diagnosing primary progressive MS difficult, despite guidelines Diagnosing primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) can be challenging, with obstacles ranging from ruling out other disorders to differentiating between PPMS and other types of multiple sclerosis (MS). These difficulties were highlighted in the study, “Real-world challenges in the diagnosis of primary progressive multiple sclerosis,” published…