#ACTRIMS2017 – This Year’s Hot Topics

Editor’s choice:Ā PatrĆcia Silva holdsĀ her PhD in Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases from the Leiden University Medical Center in Leiden, The Netherlands. She has studied Applied Biology at Universidade do Minho and was a postdoctoral research fellow at Instituto de Medicina Molecular in Lisbon, Portugal. Her work has been focused on molecular genetic traits of infectious agents such as viruses and parasites.
The countdown is on to ACTRIMS 2017Ā where a myriad of interesting topics associated with multiple sclerosis will take center stage.
This year, Multiple Sclerosis News Today will offer daily follow-up coverageĀ of theĀ second annualĀ America’s Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple SclerosisĀ (ACTRIMS)Ā congress set for February 23 to 25, 2017 in Orlando, Florida.
To help you prepare for ACTRIMS 2017, we’ve put a list together of some the hottest and most interesting topics of this year’s forum.Ā HereĀ are a few hotĀ topics and some MS-related news stories for you toĀ catch up on.
TheĀ Importance of Diet:
Lack of physical activity and a poor diet may be the most common risk factors for poor health and survival in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a study.
The research, āIndividual And Co-Occurring SNAP Risk Factors,ā was published in theĀ International Journal of MS Care.
The development of other medical conditions in MS patients may both delay an MS diagnosis and increase the progression of the disease.
Read our article about howĀ inactivity and poor diet can be common risk factors among MS patients.
Gender Diferences:
The key to why more women than men develop multiple sclerosis (MS) may come down toĀ genes that influence physical traits, such as weight, height, and body shape, according to a new study.
Researchers caution that the findings need to be verified, but they said processes leading to disease may differ between the sexes ā a crucial insight with implications for researching and treating MS.
Viral Infections and Multiple Sclerosis:
Researchers investigatingĀ immune B-cell response to the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) found that it may correlate with the amount of brain-specific B-cells in the blood ā a marker of multiple sclerosis (MS) ā and with higher disease activity. The findings were published in the journalĀ Viruses, in a study titled āThe Correlation between the Virus- And Brain Antigen-Specific B cell Response in the Blood of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis.ā
MS TherapyĀ Ocrevus:
Recently published data from three Phase 3 trials ofĀ Ocrevus (ocrelizumab)Ā show that the investigational drug does what no other therapy has achieved so far ā working to prevent disease in both relapsing and primary progressive (PP) forms of multiple sclerosis (MS).
Genetics and Multiple Sclerosis:
A genome-wide analysis of over 110,000 peopleĀ allowed researchersĀ withĀ theĀ International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium (IMSGC)Ā to discoverĀ 200 genetic loci (the position of genes on a chromosome) that areĀ common to peopleĀ withĀ multiple sclerosis (MS).
Read more about the genome-wide analysis that pinpointedĀ 200 gene variants common to MS.
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