News

Genentech recently announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted its investigational medicine ocrelizumab, a potential treatment for primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS), Breakthrough Therapy Designation based on positive Phase 3 clinical trial results showing that ocrelizumab significantly reduced disability progression and other disease activity markers compared to placebo. The FDA designation is…

The European Medicines Agency Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC), responsible for assessing and monitoring safety issues for human medicines, completed a review on the risk for progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients treated with the medicine Tysabri (natalizumab). The issued guidelines have the objective of minimizing patients’ risk.

A new study underscores the variability of immune responses in different people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and suggests this heterogenity affects responses to the commonly prescribed MS medication interferon-β, but blood biomarkers may exist that can help to determine those most likely to benefit from such treatment. The study, “Cytokine profiles…

The first standalone forum held by the Madison, Wisconsin-based Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) gets underway  Thursday, Feb. 18, and runs through Feb. 20 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The forum, “Progressive MS: From Bench to Bedside and Back,” is at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans at…

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 new campaign called “End our pain” is asking people to sign a petition calling on the U.K. to allow all patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) there to have access to medical cannabis as a treatment for MS symptoms, in keeping with countries  such as Canada and Germany, and a number…

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…

RedHill Biopharma, Ltd., an Israeli biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of oral-administered small-molecule medicines for the treatment of inflammatory and gastrointestinal diseases, recently announced it has received a Notice of Allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a new patent covering its…

When Microsoft rolled out its original Kinect system for playing Xbox video games in November 2010, the technology caught the eye of giant multinational healthcare company Novartis. A longstanding research challenge for Novartis has been to devise and design more consistent methods of quantifying whether multiple sclerosis (MS) treatments…

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…

Taste deficits are considerably more prevalent in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients than previously thought, and correlate directly with the severity of MS-related brain lesions, researchers report in an article titled “Taste dysfunction in multiple sclerosis,” published in the Journal of Neurology. Sensory problems are common MS symptoms, with…

Stable multiple sclerosis (MS) patients do not appear to be at any increased risk of disease reactivation while switching to oral therapy following treatment with injectable interferon-β/glatiramer acetate (IFNβ/GA), a study reports. Recently published in the European Journal of Neurology, the Australian study was titled “Risk of early…

The VWR Charitable Foundation recently celebrated its sales teams’ accomplishments by making charitable contributions totaling $100,000 in their honor to five organizations, including the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. VWR, based in Radnor, Pennsylvania, provides products, services, and solutions for the laboratory and production needs of customers in the pharmaceutical, biotech, education, government, and…

Synthetic Biologics, Inc., a clinical stage company focused on the development of therapeutics to protect the microbiome and to target disease-causing pathogens, recently announced disappointing results from an independent third-party analysis of a Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating Trimesta as a treatment for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) in women.

In a new study using several mouse models of human immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS), researchers found that increased levels of an endogenous protein called tristetraprolin (TTP) resulted in protection against pro-inflammatory diseases. The results suggested that this natural protein might constitute a valuable therapeutic strategy to reduce…

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society announced that its five-year campaign to raise $250 million has concluded with its goal fully achieved, allowing the society to launch more research into multiple sclerosis (MS) and effect more life-changing progress than at any other time in its nearly 70-year history. A total 818 research projects…

Researchers have found that changes in the composition of immune molecules — specifically, a shift to more anti-inflammatory cytokines and regulatory T-cells (Tregs) — likely account for the efficiency of alemtuzumab (Lemtrada) as a treatment for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). The study, titled “Alemtuzumab long-term immunologic effect: Treg suppressor function…

RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., announced the publication of a research article detailing the process by which Thymosin beta 4 (Tβ4), the company’s novel therapeutic peptide, effectively promoted the remyelination process in two separate animal models commonly used for multiple sclerosis (MS) research. The article, “Thymosin beta4 promotes oligodendrogenesis in the demyelinating…

In a recent study of more than 1,200 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), a research team reported that treatment with the drug natalizumab (Tysabri) could lead to a tenfold increase in the levels of blood antibodies associated with a virus causing a rare but severe brain disease known as progressive multifocal…

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, (UCSF) are asking African-Americans with multiple sclerosis, as well as family members, to participate in new studies into the genetic origins of the disease. The studies will investigate both people of African ancestry with MS, who are known to have low susceptibility for the disease, and those of Northern European descent,…

Researchers developed a new way of using MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to better distinguish multiple sclerosis (MS)-related “white spots” from similar brain lesions that corresponding to other conditions. Their article, “Imaging central veins in brain lesions with 3-T T2*-weighted magnetic resonance imaging differentiates multiple sclerosis from microangiopathic brain lesions,” was…

Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients treated with natalizumab have an increased risk of developing high levels of antibodies associated with a virus causing a rare, but often fatal, brain infection known as progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), researchers reported. Their study, “Therapy with natalizumab is associated with high JCV seroconversion and rising JCV index values,”…

Geoff Flynn, 42, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) two and a half years ago. As unsettling as that diagnosis was, more troubling — both then and now — were the five long years of struggle it took for him to get a proper evaluation as to the cause of his neurological…

Researchers identified a new mechanism in the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) that might explain the cognitive impairment and decline observed in these patients — a decline not directly associated with disease’s hallmarks of motor control loss, and one not currently addressed by the immunosuppressive drugs used to treat MS. The study, published…

Researchers from Karolinska Institute, Sweden, reported that the immune-associated protein lipocalin-2 (LCN2) is increased in multiple sclerosis, particularly in patients with progressive MS. The researchers, however, concluded that the factor cannot be used as a biomarker for the disease. The study, “Lipocalin-2 is increased in progressive multiple sclerosis…

Millions of television viewers who watched the popular HBO mob drama series “The Sopranos” saw actress Jamie Lynn Sigler grow from a teen into a young woman as Meadow Soprano, the independent-minded daughter of mafia boss Tony Soprano, played by the late James Gandolfini. This week, Sigler revealed she has been battling multiple…

Researchers have isolated the particular cell types likely to initiate common brain disorders and diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and Alzheimer’s disease, a finding that may point the way to new and targeted treatments. The brain has a complex cellular architecture characterized by a diverse set of cell types that are…