Organizations Join Forces to Launch New Adventure Program for Young MS Patients It seems we too often ignore the needs of younger people who have MS. (I’ve written a couple of columns about this.) This program isn’t a medical approach, but it may serve some other…

Young adults living with multiple sclerosis (MS) will now be able to experience a variety of outdoor adventures thanks to a new adventure-based healing program created through a partnership between Velocity Global and First Descents. First Descents offers free trips to young cancer patients to help empower…

I’m agonizing over an important decision and it’s driving me crazy. I’m usually a quick decision-maker, but this one is tough. I have my analytical hat on, trying to look at my choices from a scientific standpoint. Unfortunately, my anxiety kicks in, and my hat…

An approved lymphoma treatment, rituximab was found to be effective and safe for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients whose active disease has failed to respond to immunosuppressive therapies, a retrospective French study reports. Published in the Multiple Sclerosis Journal in an article titled, “Efficacy of…

Despite increasing prevalence, multiple sclerosis (MS) continues to fly under the radar with only 40 percent of Australians ranking MS as a community health priority, highlighting the need for greater awareness. Estimates show that 25,600 Australians live with MS — an increase of 4,400 over the past eight years.

The science underlying our understanding of multiple sclerosis — through to new technologies that might expand that understanding in ways “never imagined” — was the focus of a recent educational webinar titled “The Evolving Science of Multiple Sclerosis (MS).” Kottil Rammohan, MD, a professor of clinical neurology and director of the…

Cladribine treatment leads to a selective depletion of memory B-cells in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), researchers report. The results are in the presentation “Cladribine for the Effective Control of Multiple Sclerosis via Memory B Cell Depletion” being given Friday, the final day of the 2018 Annual Meeting of the …

Infection with the common Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) may increase the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS), a new report from the  Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center says. Besides MS, the Epstein-Barr virus also raises the risk for six other disorders: systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, inflammatory…

It’s spring — at least, it’s supposed to be — so getting stuck at the airport due to snow was the last thing I expected during a recent trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan. But that’s exactly what happened to me on Sunday. I sat with thousands of fellow passengers,…

Editor’s note: Tamara Sellman continues her series on the “MS alphabet” with this column referencing terms starting with the letters “U” through “Z.” This is the last post in this series.  Symptoms of MS Uhthoff’s phenomenon People with MS are often heat-sensitive and experience overheating due to…

As you read this, I likely will be in the middle of, or finished with, my second round of Lemtrada (alemtuzumab). Hopefully, this will be the final round of this disease-modifying therapy (DMT), and the final MS treatment of any kind, for me. Though some have required more,…

On Good Friday, my family and I took a three-day road trip to lay my husband to rest. Our goal was to honor his last wishes and set his ashes free in the wilderness that he so loved. My husband enjoyed going archery hunting almost every fall, until a…

A few weeks ago I warned of the dangers that are possible when people turn to social media for information about their MS. But there’s another danger that technology and the internet have brought us: access to our own medical records. Sandra G. Boodman has taken…

A year after U.S. regulators approved Genentech’s Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) as the first treatment for both the relapsing and progressive forms of multiple sclerosis, a prominent neurologist involved in the Phase 3 clinical trials that led to its authorization says it has been beneficial for some MS patients. But it’s simply…

Biogen and AbbVie Voluntarily Withdraw Marketing Authorizations for MS Therapy Zinbryta You may have heard about this already, so forgive me if it’s not new to you, but it’s important information. A dozen cases of encephalitis or meningoencephalitis have been reported in patients using Zinbryta, and…

American TV personality Montel Williams, who uses medical cannabis to manage his multiple sclerosis symptoms, will speak at the 5th annual Cannabis World Congress and Business Exposition in New York City, May 30 to June 2. A prominent medical cannabis advocate, Williams will discuss its legalization and acceptance, a movement that has…

One way the body may protect itself from nerve cell inflammation is to have cells in the blood-brain barrier increase their production of a protein that keeps immune cells from entering the brain, researchers in Germany and Canada report. The finding suggests that scientists could develop a multiple sclerosis therapy around the protein, known as EGFL7. It would work by preventing as many inflammation-generating immune cells from entering the brain. The underlying trigger for MS is immune cells crossing the blood-brain barrier to invade the central nervous system (CNS). The barrier is a selective membrane that shields the CNS from general blood circulation. Therapies that prevent immune cells from entering the brain can help control the disease, studies have shown. They include Tysabri (natalizumab, marketed by Biogen). But “as with other highly effective disease-modifying therapies which influence a broad range of peripheral immune cells, potential devastating adverse events limit the use of this therapy as a first-line agent,” the researchers wrote. The team at Mainz University Medical Center in Germany and the University of Montreal wondered if epidermal growth factor-like protein 7 (EGFL7) could prevent the brain inflammation in MS.  Although scientists had not previously linked it to MS, it was shown to regulate the migration of immune cells into breast cancer tumors. The CNS response to the chronic inflammation seen in MS patients and a mouse model of the disease was to increase EGFL7 in the blood-brain barrier, the researchers found. Researchers said the increase prevented pro-inflammatory immune cells from crossing into the CNS. Endothelial cells that line blood capillaries in the blood-brain barrier are the ones that secrete EGFL7. “We postulate that EGFL7 upregulation by BBB-ECs [brain blood barrier-endothelial cells] is induced as a compensatory mechanism to promote survival and recovery of BBB function in neuroinflammatory conditions,” the team wrote. Researchers then tested what happened in mice that lacked EGFL7. They found that the mice developed MS earlier and that their blood-brain barrier membrane was less efficient at keeping immune cells out. Treatment with EGFL7 improved the disease severity in the MS mice and tightened the blood-brain barrier, they said. “In light of our findings, smaller EGFL7 agonists, in development for other diseases, could therefore constitute an appealing therapeutic avenue for MS,” the team concluded.

Reprogramming skin cells into brain stem cells, then transplanting them into the central nervous system may reduce inflammation and reverse the nerve cell damage in progressive multiple sclerosis, a mouse study shows. Scientists have dubbed macrophages the immune system's big eaters because they engulf abnormal cells like cancer in addition to invaders like viruses and bacteria. Special classes of macrophages live in a number of organs, including the brain and spinal cord, where they’re called microglia. Although they protect the body, microglia can participate in the development of progressive forms of MS by attacking the central nervous system, causing nerve cell damage. MS is an autoimmune disease, or one in which the immune system can attack healthy tissue besides invaders. Recent studies have suggested that neural stem cells, which have the capacity to differentiate into any type of nerve cell, can regulate immune response and inflammation in the central nervous system. At one point, researchers obtained neural stem cells from embryos. But this technique generated only a fraction of the cells needed for treatments. Meanwhile, doctors have tried to avoid collecting stem cells from someone with a different genetic profile than the patient because this increases the risk that the immune system will attack them once they're transplanted. University of Cambridge scientists decided to try reprogramming skin cells into neural stem cells. The idea behind the mouse study was that using skin cells from the same person who will receive the stem cells will reduce the chance that the immune system will attack the stem cells. In the mouse study, the team discovered a link between higher than normal levels of a small metabolite, called succinate, and chronic MS. The metabolite prompts macrophages and microglia to generate inflammation in the cerebrospinal fluid that bathes the brain and spinal cord. Transplanting neural stem cells and progenitors of these stem cells into the cerebrospinal fluid of mice improved the animals' chronic nerve cell inflammation. The stem cells reduced the animals' succinate levels and switched their macrophages and microglia from a pro- to an anti-inflammatory state. This led to a decrease in inflammation and less damage to the central nervous system. “Our mouse study suggests that using a patient’s reprogrammed cells could provide a route to personalized treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases, including progressive forms of MS,” Stefano Pluchino, a principal researcher in Cambridge's Department of Clinical Neurosciences, said in a press release. “This is particularly promising as these cells should be more readily obtainable than conventional neural stem cells and would not carry the risk of an adverse immune response,” said Pluchino, the study's lead author. Luca Peruzzotti-Jametti, a Wellcome Trust research training fellow, said the discovery would not have been possible without a multidisciplinary collaboration. “We made this discovery by bringing together researchers from diverse fields, including regenerative medicine, cancer, mitochondrial biology, inflammation and stroke, and cellular reprogramming."

Medical cannabis was found to safely and significantly reduce chronic pain in older patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and a wide range of other conditions, researchers in Israel report. Led by scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and the Cannabis Clinical Research Institute at Soroka University Medical…

Inhibiting an enzyme responsible for turning genes on and off can reverse damage to the myelin sheath that protects nerve cells, improving limb function, a multiple sclerosis-related study in mice shows. The research, which involved mice with sciatic nerve damage rather than MS, was published in the journal Nature Medicine.

At the end of each passing year, I like to give a theme name to the fresh new year. So last year when my sister Kathy asked me what I would dub 2018, I thought for a few moments and said, “The metamorphosis of change.” I previously didn’t have…

The stigma of multiple sclerosis can increase patients’ risk of depression, but a socially supportive environment, a sense of belonging and a sense of independence can help ease the problem, a study Penn State University study reports. Researchers have…

Editor’s note: Tamara Sellman continues her occasional series on the “MS alphabet” with this column referencing terms starting with the letter “P.” This post comes sixth in a series of seven. Symptoms of MS Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) Though progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) isn’t an actual symptom of MS,…

Last updated April 25, 2023 At the intersection of hope and despair is a bench to sit and rest. At least, I hope there is. The bench gives us an opportunity to take a breather from the stresses of the world. It’s a chance to sit and think about which…

The other day, as I cruised around various MS internet groups, I came across a lament that I’ve seen before. But this one, for some reason, jumped out at me. A woman with MS wrote that she was “fortunate” that her RRMS symptoms were relatively minor: fatigue, numbness in…

CannaMD plans two medical marijuana clinics in the Orlando area to evaluate patients for entry in the Florida Medical Marijuana Use Registry. The first clinic opened Jan. 17 in the suburb of Dr. Phillips; the second will open Jan. 25 in the Lake County town of Mt. Dora. CannaMD is a statewide…

Quality of life. These three words conjure different images for people, depending on their needs. Quality of life could mean having improved health, good relationships with others, and stress-free life. In the world of medical research, quality of life (QoL), is an endpoint result that is often understudied…

One year ago, I wrote “Grief, Self-preservation and Multiple Sclerosis.” My…

A Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating AB Science’s masitinib as a treatment for progressive multiple sclerosis can continue without having to add patients, an independent review board has decided. The decision indicates that the therapy has been effective enough that its population base does not need to be expanded, the…

Multiple Sclerosis News Today brought you daily coverage of important discoveries, treatment developments, clinical trials, and other events dealing with multiple sclerosis throughout 2017. We look forward to providing more news to MS patients, family members, and caregivers during 2018. As a reminder of what mattered most to you in…