News

Among people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and mild to moderate disability, fatigue severity was associated with a range of physical and psychological factors that may be important to consider when managing the symptom, a study found. Using patients’ responses to the Comprehensive Fatigue Assessment Battery for Multiple Sclerosis (CFAB-MS)…

Increased memory loss over longer periods, known as accelerated long-term forgetting (ALF), is greater in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) than in healthy adults, a study found. Although people with MS performed similarly to healthy controls on short-term memory tests, they remembered significantly less information seven days later, suggesting…

Multiple sclerosis (MS) may be marked by problems with the body’s ability to make new mitochondria — the small structures inside plant and animal cells that serve as tiny power plants for turning food into usable energy. That’s the key finding of a new study in which researchers discovered…

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) who report difficulty sleeping tend to have reduced flow in what essentially serves as the body’s biological sewer system for removing waste from the brain, a new study suggests. The findings imply that getting a good night’s sleep may meaningfully affect brain biology in…

People with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) may have less diverse gut bacteria than healthy people, with shifts in genes involved in how well certain bacteria break through the body’s defenses, according to a study. The findings add to growing evidence that changes in the microbiota may be linked to…

A new experimental cell therapy that pairs a patient’s own red blood cells with myelin protein fragments safely calmed the immune system and helped dampen the inflammatory attack that drives multiple sclerosis (MS), according to results from an early-stage clinical trial. The novel approach works by retraining the body’s…

Researchers in Germany have been granted more than $1 million to support the development of a novel skin patch designed to promote myelin repair in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) — funding that brings the experimental treatment closer to clinical testing, according to the team. The patch contains…

Automated analyses of a person’s everyday speech patterns could offer a simple, noninvasive way of tracking brain tissue loss in multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a study. Researchers found that changes in speech over a period of two years — in particular, a narrower vocabulary range and more frequent…

A trio of European scientists has linked subtle changes in the brain’s white matter — tissue rich in nerve cell projections — to early relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), a form of the neurodegenerative disease marked by flare-ups interspersed with periods of remission. Using a specialized noninvasive imaging technique, the…

An experimental oral drug called remibrutinib outperformed the approved therapy Aubagio (teriflunomide) in reducing disease flare rates in two large, late-stage clinical trials involving people with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). That’s according to top-line data — the studies’ first results — announced by remibrutinib’s developer…

Patterns in how different regions of the brain are structurally organized may help distinguish people with multiple sclerosis (MS) from those without the disease and provide information about MS-related clinical features, a study in China found. Using MRI scans, researchers created individualized maps of large brain networks and found widespread…

Vitamin D supplementation did not consistently reduce relapse rates in adults with multiple sclerosis (MS), although it may reduce the number of MS lesions seen on MRI scans, according to a systematic review of published studies. Several trials found reductions in new or active lesions even when vitamin…

Anti-inflammatory diets may help to ease fatigue and improve overall physical health in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a new analysis of data from 10 clinical trials. Findings also indicated that anti-inflammatory diets do not substantially alter body composition, disability status, or mental health in MS patients.

Problems with episodic memory, or the ability to remember personal experiences and events, among people with multiple sclerosis (MS) may be related to difficulties in interpreting emotions and understanding others — a known nonmotor symptom of the neurological disease. That’s the main takeaway from a small study in France…

Daily step patterns — captured via wearable devices such as smartwatches — may offer a more complete picture of disability in people with progressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) than measurements taken during occasional clinic visits, a study found. Using more than two years of step count data from…

While U.S. researchers believed a home-based telerehabilitation program — thought to be more convenient and accessible for patients — would prove more effective than a clinic-based one in improving walking endurance in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), data from a large clinical trial in “the Deep South” found no…

A new U.S. study has found that use of the recombinant zoster vaccine effectively reduces the risk of herpes zoster — more commonly known as shingles — in adults with multiple sclerosis (MS). Specifically, in a retrospective analysis involving more than 14,000 vaccinated people with MS, receiving the recombinant…

Social and economic factors, including unemployment, being unmarried, or living in disadvantaged neighborhoods, are linked to poorer cognitive skills in adults with multiple sclerosis (MS), especially among non-white people, according to a U.S. study. The findings add to earlier evidence that patients with a lower socioeconomic status, tend…

Early treatment with high-efficacy disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) lowered the risk of relapse-associated disability progression in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), but had no effect on disability progression independent of relapse activity (PIRA), a nationwide study in Denmark found. People who received high-efficacy therapies as a first treatment were…

Both the Mediterranean diet and time-restricted eating — a dietary intervention in which all daily meals and snacks are consumed within a set time window — may help promote weight loss in people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), according to results from a small clinical trial comparing the two…

Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) and Kesimpta (ofatumumab) are both highly effective at preventing relapses and disability worsening in people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) in real-world clinical practice, though data show small differences in their clinical profiles. While Ocrevus was linked to fewer relapses and Kesimpta to a lower…

Probiotic supplements may ease fatigue, reduce pain, and lower inflammation in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), though they do not appear to significantly lessen disability or improve mental health, according to a new pooled analysis of six clinical trials. “Probiotics may offer moderate benefits for symptom management in MS,…

Scientists have identified dozens of genes in specific immune cells that may influence the risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) and susceptibility to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), offering new clues about the biological mechanisms that may connect EBV infection with MS. A new study by…

Treatment with Ponvory (ponesimod) for up to 13 years was associated with sustained low disease activity in adults with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), with relapse rates and brain lesion activity decreasing over time. That’s according to new data from a completed Phase 2b clinical trial (NCT01006265) and its long-term…

Some lifestyle habits, such as engaging in physical activity and not smoking, may provide the greatest health benefits earlier in the course of multiple sclerosis (MS), while others, such as eating a healthy diet, may be of more help to those who have been living with the disease for…

Immunic says it’s on track to announce early data by year’s end from twin late-stage trials testing vidofludimus calcium (IMU-838) — an oral therapy believed to have both anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties — in people with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). The top-line results from the…

A trio of scientists in Australia has developed a mathematical model that can be used to help understand disease activity patterns in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). The model uses two overarching variables — inflammation and myelin damage — to describe how relapses and stable disease occur in…

A drug used to prevent stroke complications may help preserve myelin, the protective coating around nerve fibers that is damaged in multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a review of data from animal studies. The treatment, nimodipine, was also associated with reduced inflammation, nerve damage, and disease severity in several…

People with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) who show even a single silent lesion on an MRI scan while taking a lower- or moderate-efficacy disease-modifying therapy (DMT) may benefit from switching to a higher-efficacy treatment, according to a large international study. Researchers found that having one or more silent…

Certain cannabis-based therapies may provide relief from spasticity in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a review of data from 27 clinical trials involving more than 3,000 participants. Among the different therapies evaluated, those containing an equal mix of two of the main compounds found in the cannabis…