MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: Predicting Disease Progression, Temelimab, Trigeminal Neuralgia

Combined Data May Predict Person’s Risk of Advancing From CIS to MS

Clinically isolated syndrome is sometimes called “early MS.” It’s the diagnosis used when someone’s symptoms don’t quite look like MS, but it does appear that MS is lurking. It may take years for an actual diagnosis to be made. Researchers hope this group of data might make it possible to determine who is more and less likely to wind up with that diagnosis. This could result in better treatment.

A novel algorithm that combines genetic, environmental, and clinical data could be useful for predicting whether people with a first onset of multiple sclerosis (MS)-like disease — known as clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) — will experience relapses or a worsening of their disease over time.

The algorithm may be particularly useful for selecting patients in clinical trials, its researchers noted.

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Final Data Likely Soon in Phase 2 Trial of Temelimab for Relapsing MS

Temelimab is a monoclonal antibody that researchers hope will prevent the inflammatory responses that cause damage to the myelin sheath. Earlier results showed that treatment with this investigational medication slowed the worsening of disability, reduced the loss of brain volume, and preserved myelin, but only when the highest trial dose was used. This latest trial explored that higher dose. Hopefully, the results will be positive and allow progression of the clinical trial to Phase 3.

A Phase 2 clinical trial into the safety and tolerability of higher-dose temelimab as a potential therapy for relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) is now complete, and top-line data is expected by late March, its developer, GeNeuro, announced.

The ProTEct-MS Phase 2 trial (NCT04480307), conducted at the Karolinska Institutet’s Academic Specialist Center in Stockholm, investigated temelimab, at higher doses than previous trials, in 40 people with relapsing MS and evidence of disease progression in the absence of relapses.

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Study: Trigeminal Neuralgia Affects More Than 3% of Patients

Facial pain affects only a small percentage of people with MS? From what I read on social media every day, it seems to affect a much larger group than that. Though not all of them know what their facial pain is called, they certainly feel it. Have you experienced trigeminal neuralgia? If so, please share your thoughts in the comments below. 

Trigeminal neuralgia, a chronic pain condition characterized by shocks or burning sensations in the face, seems to be much more common among people with multiple sclerosis (MS) than in the general population, according to a review of published studies.

This condition also is more prevalent in women with MS than it is in men, although the reasons for this are not yet clear.

Understanding the prevalence of trigeminal neuralgia could improve pain management among people with MS, the researchers noted.

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