Patricia Silva, PhD, director of science content —

The Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC), a pre-eminent organization of multiple sclerosis (MS) healthcare providers, will hold its 30th Annual Meeting on June 1–4, 2016, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. The CMSC Annual Meeting is the most comprehensive multidisciplinary MS conference…

A new assessment by a European regulatory agency failed to find fingolimod of added benefit to comparator therapies for people with highly active relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) who have failed to respond to treatment with at least one other disease-modifying drug. Fingolimod (Gilenya), developed as a therapy for multiple sclerosis, has undergone three early benefit assessments since its…

Video games targeting cognitive abilities may improve brain function in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), a new study found. Results, published in the journal Radiology, showed that these games strengthen connections between neurons in the thalamus, a brain region crucial for information processing. The findings also add to…

To celebrate the many family, friends, healthcare professionals, and advocacy communities offering vital support to people living with multiple sclerosis (MS) day after day, MSWorld and Biogen have created the #MySupportHero program. The social media campaign runs through March, MS Awareness Month, to allow people with MS to thank all those who encourage and…

Researchers found that nerve cell connections in the brain, called synapses, were damaged in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS) through a process wholly unrelated to myelin destruction. As the damaged mice synapses studied were in regions crucial for memory processing, finding ways of protecting these neurons would be a crucial step toward developing a…

Children whose mothers were vitamin D deficient during the early stages of pregnancy are at an elevated risk for developing multiple sclerosis (MS) in adulthood, according to a study published in the journal JAMA Neurology, titled “Vitamin D Status During Pregnancy and Risk of Multiple…

Silvana L. Costa, PhD from the Kessler Foundation, was recently awarded a Switzer Research Fellowship by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). Dr. Costa is a Hearst Fellow in Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research at Kessler, where she investigates cognitive deficits in multiple sclerosis (MS). The Merit Fellowship,…

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) who also suffer from other autoimmune conditions, like thyroid disease or diabetes, have more severe brain damage than MS patients without comorbidities, according to a study from the University at Buffalo. The study was recently published in the American Journal of Neuroradiology. An earlier report from…

Two scientists at Northwestern University, Anne Marie Piper and Brenna Argall, recently received the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The work of Dr. Argall, in particular, might be relevant for people with disabilities caused by diseases such as multiple sclerosis or brain trauma resulting from accidents…

Genzyme, a specialty care unit of Sanofi, announced that TV and film actress Madeleine Stowe will host its new online series, “Take Action on MS,” focusing on people living with relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS). Stowe, whose father had MS, works with Genzyme to educate people across the U.S. about daily life with the…

Children’s Health of North Texas has been designated  a Center for Comprehensive MS Care by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, making it the only pediatric healthcare system in the northern part of the state with such a recognition. The Comprehensive MS Care designation acknowledges an institution that delivers quality, full patient care in a…

March is Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Awareness Month, and the  Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSAA) will be marking it with a campaign to educate and heighten public awareness of the disease and the needs of the MS community. For this campaign, the MSAA will dedicate each week in March to a…

Ekaterina Dobryakova, PhD, was recently awarded a three-year grant worth $408,000 by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to study fatigue-influencing factors among patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Dr. Dobryakova is a researcher in Traumatic Brain Injury Research at the Kessler Foundation, where she focuses on cognitive issues in…

A PhRMA report, titled “A Decade of Innovation in Chronic Diseases,” examined advances made in the treatment of several chronic health conditions, including multiple sclerosis (MS), over the past 10 years that have helped patients to avoid disease complications and hospitalizations, and improve their quality of life.

Montel Williams, a TV and radio talk show host and advocate for medical marijuana as a treatment for multiple sclerosis and other chronic illnesses, has joined the board of KIND Financial, a technology solutions company, as a key advisor in efforts to support and expand the drug’s use. “Montel Williams has become one…

Shift.ms, the U.K. social network dedicated to people with multiple sclerosis (MS), is testing a new tool designed to help people cope with the uncertainties and complex emotions that follow their diagnosis. The tool, called Thought Sort, is the first online cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) specially designed for MS patients.

A researcher has identified two drugs that may be used to reverse peripheral nerve damage, also referred to as peripheral neuropathy, resulting from diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS) and diabetes, the use of chemotherapy in the treatment of some cancers, or traumatic injuries. The researcher, Sandra Rieger, PhD, is an assistant professor…

Celgene Corporation announced the results from an extension study of the RADIANCE Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating ozanimod in patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS). The results were also presented at the recent Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum 2016 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ozanimod is a small…

In an innovative research project funded by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Dr. Anne Astier from the University of Edinburgh, U.K., and her team will use zebrafish to track the CD46 protein and determine where and how it affects the movement of immune cells into the brain, a process believed to influence…

Researchers at the University of Northampton’s Radon and Natural Radioactivity Research Group (RNRRG) developed a methodology to study whether radon gas, an invisible and radioactive gas known to cause lung cancer, might be a contributing factor in multiple sclerosis. They concluded that the link between the two was weak and not statistically significant.

Dr. Daniel S. Reich with Johns Hopkins University  is giving an oral talk on “MRI as an Outcome Measure in Progressive Multiple Sclerosis” at Friday’s ACTRIMS Forum 2016. This year’s meeting focuses on progressive MS, and runs through Saturday, Feb. 20, in New Orleans. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been the…

Brian M. Sandroff from the Kessler Foundation and Robert W. Mot with the University of Illinois will present the results of a study on the effects of exercise in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) today, Feb.18, at the Americas Committee for the Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS)…

The Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum 2016 starts today, Feb. 18, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and runs through Saturday, Feb. 20. The opening day’s Session 1, titled “Emerging Concepts in MS,” places special focus on cutting-edge studies on the pathogenic mechanisms in multiple sclerosis (MS), new measures of…

The U.S. Senate health committee recently passed the “Advancing Research for Neurological Diseases Act of 2015” (S. 849), sponsored by Sens. Johnny Isakson and Chris Murphy, which would create a nationwide system to track the incidence and prevalence of neurological diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS), and that one day might help lead to a…

A new  multiple sclerosis (MS) clinical trial being led by Case Western Reserve University investigators is now recruiting 215 individuals, across 10 U.S. states to assess whether the fatigue management and physical activity interventions often provided by rehabilitation centers can effectively be offered by telehealth, through a series of teleconferences and phone interviews. An National MS…

A Spanish study showed that relapse and remission in multiple sclerosis (MS) states are regulated by small non-coding RNA (sncRNA) molecules in patterns differing between men and women. Scientists have increasingly realized that sncRNAs play an important role in the regulation of gene expression. Various kinds of these RNA molecules, such as…

The Co-Pay Relief program offered through the Patient Advocate Foundation has added a new financial assistance fund to its collection of resources for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The new fund is now available to financially eligible MS patients with health insurance coverage to support the costs of necessary treatment medicines. “Our case management department has been…

TNF-α blocking drugs, such as infliximab, surprised investigators when their use in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) actually triggered demyelination. In a case report published in the journal Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation, Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers reviewed an aggressive demyelinating event in a non-MS patient treated with TNF-α blockers. TNF-α blockers…

A research team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) in Boston and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) launched a study on people at risk for developing multiple sclerosis (MS), a debilitating disease that affects more than 400,000 people in the United States and about…

Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers reported that antibodies directed at lipids are associated with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of brain degeneration in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), and may potentially serve as biomarkers for monitoring disease status. While the hyperintense brain lesions detected by MRI are crucial for diagnosis and therapeutic…