March 29, 2019 News by Alberto Molano, PhD

$1.5M Earmarked for MS Research on Cannabis in Canada

In partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the MS Society of Canada has announced $1.5 million to fund research over five years on the effects of cannabis on multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms and disease progression. Studies have shown that for each 10-degree increase in latitude, patients newly diagnosed…

May 31, 2018 News by Diogo Pinto

HPV Vaccine Not Seen to Raise Risk of Autoimmune Disease in Canadian Study

Girls given the quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV4) vaccination, commercialized as Gardasil, showed no increased risk of developing autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a new Canadian study. The time since vaccination and the number of vaccine doses given also did not correlate with diagnoses of such disorders, supporting…

December 6, 2017 News by Patricia Silva, PhD

National MS Society Endorses US-Canada Registry Aiming to Advance Research and Patient Care

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society has endorsed the North American Registry for Care and Research in Multiple Sclerosis, a collaborative effort involving other multiple sclerosis registries, clinicians, researchers and patients in the U.S. and parts of Canada. NARCRMS is a public-private partnership, bringing together academia, industry, governmental agencies, and nonprofit organizations with an interest in MS. It operates under the auspices of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers. It consists of a database of clinical records and patient-centered outcomes, providing clinicians and scientists with a greater and more integrated ability to track the incidence, prevalence and course of MS. Like many registries, NARCRMS includes data collected by physicians, like neuroimaging scans, genetic markers, cognitive assessments and specimen collection, and testing for identification of biomarkers of disease progression. It also adds patient-reported outcomes focused on disease challenges and impacts on daily life. Its goal is to improve the understanding of MS, facilitate multi-level care, and aid in recruiting patients into clinical trials. NARCRMS is the first open-source database to connect MS centers across North America to regional databases by state, region and zip code. To date, NARCRMS has recruited 10 centers, with another three in the process of coming aboard, and has enrolled 113 patients. The registry builds on North American Research Committee on Multiple Sclerosis (NARCOMS), the oldest patient-driven registry in the U.S. using patient experiences to advance MS clinical care and life quality. NARCOMS was created in 1993 by the CMSC. More than 37,500 people had joined the registry as of 2015. Researchers used NARCOMS data on 2014 to report on outcomes in switching treatments, therapy effectiveness, disease progression, co-existing conditions, and other topics that help understand the MS experience.

December 6, 2017 News by Alice Melão, MSc

Health Canada Approves Merck’s Mavenclad to Treat RRMS

Canadians with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis can now receive Merck’s Mavenclad, now that Health Canada has approved Mavenclad as a therapy to reduce the frequency of MS exacerbations and delay disease progression. Merck expects the drug to be commercially available by early January 2018 throughout Canada, which has the world's highest MS rate. This follows the drug’s approval by the European Commission in August, making Mavenclad Europe's first approved highly efficient, oral short-course therapy for relapsing MS. Merck said it would seek regulatory approval of Mavenclad in other countries, including the United States. Mavenclad was designed to selectively target immune cells that trigger relapsing MS, while resetting the immune system. With two annual courses of treatment for a maximum of 20 days over two years, the oral drug promotes long-term inhibition of harmful immune T- and B-cells, without continuous suppression of the immune system. Researchers evaluated Mavenclad in five clinical trials: Phase 3 trials CLARITY, CLARITY EXTENSION and ORACLE-MS; the Phase 2 trial ONWARD study ; and the long-term study PREMIERE. These involved more than 2,700 RRMS patients, some of whom were observed for more than 10 years. Clinical data showed that Mavenclad can significantly reduce disability progression, annualized relapse rates and brain atrophy. The treatment is generally recommended for patients who failed to respond adequately, or are unable to tolerate, one or more MS therapies.

October 27, 2017 News by Patricia Inacio, PhD

#MSParis2017 – Beta-Interferon Therapies May Increase Survival of MS Patients, Study Suggests

Long-term exposure of at least three years of beta-interferon therapies such as Rebif or Avonex may increase the survival of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, a population-based study suggests. The study reporting the findings, titled “Beta-interferon and mortality in multiple sclerosis: a population-based international study,” was presented Friday at the ongoing ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS Meeting…

July 6, 2017 News by admin

Younger MS Patients Who Are Hospitalized May Be at Higher Risk of Quitting Treatment, Study Reports

MS patients who start treatment at a younger age, and whose condition requires hospitalization, are more likely to stop treatment, a Canadian study reports. The research, published in the journal Dovepress, dealt with the main reasons Canadian patients quit first-line injected disease-modifying therapies, or DMTs. It was titled “Persistence to disease-modifying therapies for multiple sclerosis in a Canadian cohort.” DMTs can reduce MS activity, but patients must stick with them in order for them to be effective. “There is currently a paucity of clinical trial data on what happens to individuals when they discontinue DMT," the researchers wrote. "However, recent preliminary evidence from observational studies suggest increased relapses and disability in those who discontinue DMT." Researchers sought to identify MS patients at higher risk of discontinuing treatment. They looked at Manitoba Province's medical database to identify the types of drugs MS patients were taking, and for how long. The analysis covered 721 patients who received injected beta-interferons or Copaxone between 1996 and 2011, and whom doctors followed for at least a year. Teva manufactures Copaxone, whose generic name is glatiramer acetate. The mean age of the patients in the study was 37.6 years, and 74.2 percent were women. Researchers defined a discontinuation of a DMT as a 90-day or longer gap in treatment. A third of the patients were treated with beta-interferon-1b, either Bayer HealthCare's Betaferon/Betaseron or Novartis' Extavia. It was the first such therapy available in Manitoba. Twenty-three percent of patients received beta-interferon-1a, either Biogen's Avonex or Merck's Rebif. And 21 percent received Copaxone. The median time before a patient discontinued a DMT was 4.2 years. Although 62.6 percent of patients discontinued treatment at some point, 57.4 percent either reinitiated it or switched to a different DMT. Patients who were on DMT at least a year were more likely to stay with it than those who stopped in the first year. Importantly, patients who started a DMT at a younger age were more likely to stop taking it than older patients. “Our results are also consistent with previous work examining persistence for other chronic medication classes, including statins, antihypertensives, bisphosphonates, and oral antidiabetic agents, where the risk for discontinuing drugs declined in a linear fashion with age,” the researchers wrote. The team also found that 16 percent of patients had to be hospitalized overnight, with 3 percent of the cases due to MS-related complications. And these hospitalized patients were more likely to stop their DMT treatment earlier, the researchers said. Summing up, the team said: "Subjects who were younger when starting a DMT, had prior MS-related hospitalizations, were more recently diagnosed with MS, or had a greater lag time between their MS diagnosis and DMT initiation were more likely to discontinue therapy." Although "not all of the factors identified with discontinuing DMT" can be modified, "they may help practitioners enhance MS care by identifying individuals who may be at particular risk for DMT discontinuation," the researchers concluded.

May 30, 2017 News by Patricia Inacio, PhD

#CMSC17 – Physical Activity Halts Depression in Young MS Patients, Canadian Study Shows

Young multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who engage in physical activity can relieve symptoms of depression, concludes a Canadian study supported by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Researchers presented their study, “Longitudinal Relationships Between Moderate and Vigorous Physical Activity, Fatigue, and Depression in Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis,” at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the…

February 16, 2017 News by Joana Fernandes, PhD

Researchers Test Medical Cannabis as Treatment for MS-Linked Neuropathic Pain

Canadian researchers are testing mice to see if cannabinoid oil products — a common medical marijuana treatment — could help alleviate the neuropathic pain that often afflicts patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The preclinical study, “Identifying the molecular mechanisms involved in supressing multiple sclerosis induced neuropathic pain following cannabinoid treatment in…

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