October 19, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: Foralumab seen to ease brain inflammation in SPMS Six months of treatment with foralumab, administered into the nose, led to decreases in microglial activity in five of six people with nonactive secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) involved in an expanded access program. Microglia are resident immune cells in the brain believed to play a role in driving…
October 19, 2023 News by Andrea Lobo, PhD ECTRIMS 2023: Most on Zeposia see slower disability progression More than three-quarters of people with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) who received Zeposia (ozanimod) in the RADIANCE clinical trial and its extension study still haven’t experienced confirmed disability progression after eight years of follow-up, new data shows. Among those who progressed, about half of disability progression…
October 18, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: New research may help explain EBV and MS link New research by scientists in Austria may shed light on the link between theĀ Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) andĀ multiple sclerosis (MS), and explain why only some people infected with EBV ā previously found to raise the risk of MSĀ by 32 times ā go on to develop the neurodegenerative disorder. Distinct…
October 18, 2023 News by Lindsey Shapiro, PhD ECTRIMS 2023: Declining risk of SPMS conversion seen in registry The risk of converting to secondary-progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) has declined in recent years for patients who have an earlier disease onset, an analysis of data from the Swedish MS Registry indicates. The conversion is also occurring later in life and in people who have lived with multiple…
October 18, 2023 News by Lindsey Shapiro, PhD ECTRIMS 2023: Sick days in years before diagnosis suggest MS prodrome Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients had significantly more sickness-related work absences in the years leading up to their disease onset than people in the general population, a recent Swedish analysis showed. Scientists believe the findings support the growing notion that there is an MS prodrome, during which early signs of…
October 17, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: Blood biomarker may help to predict disability in MS Blood levels of neurofilament light chain (NfL), a marker of nerve damage, were seen to increase about a year or two prior to disability worsening in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), particularly among patients whose disease progressed without any relapse activity. That’s according to new data presented at the…
October 17, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: Early high-efficacy treatment helps to slow disability in pediatric-onset MS Use of high-efficacy therapies can lower the risk of disability progression in people with childhood-onset multiple sclerosis (MS), particularly if given in early disease stages when disablingĀ symptoms are negligible. That’s according to data shared at the 9th joint meeting of the European Committee for Treatment and…
October 17, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: Fenebrutinib lowers new lesions in relapsing MS Treatment with the investigational therapy fenebrutinib significantly reduced the number of new inflammatory lesions visible on MRI scans in people with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). Pharmacological data from the study suggest the anti-inflammatory experimental medication can get into the brain and spinal cord at levels high…
October 16, 2023 News by Lindsey Shapiro, PhD ECTRIMS 2023: Tolebrutinib found to show benefits for up to 3 years Treatment with tolebrutinib for up to nearly three years was tied to low relapse rates, stable disability, and few new brain lesions among people with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS), according to new data from the long-term safety (LTS) extension of a Phase 2b trial. The data…
October 16, 2023 News by Lindsey Shapiro, PhD ECTRIMS 2023: Obesity tied to disability progression, declines Obese people with multiple sclerosis (MS) had faster disability accumulation, greater cognitive declines, and worse quality of life in the 15 years after diagnosis relative to patients with normal weight, according to an analysis of Swedish data. While it’s been known that obesity was a risk factor for developing…
October 16, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: More disease activity when treatment stopped A clinical trial that was testing if treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS) could be discontinued in people with stable disease was terminated early after several patients who stopped treatment saw new disease activity. The findings support the continued use of disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) even by those who haven’t…
October 13, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: Personalized dosing of Tysabri shows good efficacy A personalized dosing schedule for Tysabri (natalizumab) that aims to maintain blood levels of the drug above a certain threshold seems to be just as effective for controlling disease activity in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) as the approved every-four-week dosing schedule. That’s according to interim data from an…
October 13, 2023 News by Lindsey Shapiro, PhD ECTRIMS 2023: Early high-efficacy DMTs may help slow MS disability People with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) who had an early start on high-efficacy disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) experience slower disability progression compared with those on escalation treatment, according to recent research. The study, which followed patients for up to 10 years, supports starting high-risk RRMS patients on highly effective…
October 13, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: Treating SPMS with OCH shows promise in small study Five of six people with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) treated with an experimental oral therapy called OCH saw no disease activity over six months in a small clinical trial. That’s compared with 0% of the SPMS patients given a placebo, according to new data presented by Tomoko Okamoto,…
October 12, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: Under-the-skin Ocrevus found to be powerful in MS A new under-the-skin formulation of Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) ā administered in 10 minutes ā is at least as effective as the approved intravenous, or into-the-vein, formulation among people with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to new clinical trial data. Most people given either the new subcutaneous formulation or the intravenous…
October 12, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: EBV may trigger attack on brain protein ANO2 Infection with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) may prime the immune system to accidentally attack a brain protein called ANO2, new research shows. The findings may explain how EBV infection can lead to developing multiple sclerosis (MS), at least in some patients. Daniel Jons, PhD, a scientist at the…
October 11, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS ECTRIMS 2023: Vidofludimus calcium lowers RRMS nerve damage Six months of treatment with the experimental oral therapy vidofludimus calcium (IMU-838) led to significant reductions in a marker of nerve damage among people withĀ relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), according to a new analysis of data from a Phase 2 clinical trial. Previous data indicated the therapy significantly reduced…