April 10, 2024 News by Margarida Maia, PhD Immune signatures may predict MS course, treatment response Researchers have identified three distinct immune signatures in the blood of people with early multiple sclerosis (MS)Ā that seem to be linked to specific disease trajectories and response to treatment, potentially offering a path to personalized care. āThese findings represent a pivotal shift towards precision medicine in MS,ā Heinz Wiendl,…
March 8, 2024 News by Andrea Lobo, PhD Briumvi, an infusion treatment for MS, granted 3 more patents TG Therapeutics has secured three additional U.S. patents for Briumvi (ublituximab-xiiy), an anti-CD20 antibody that’s been approved to treat relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). Issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the patent numbers 11,807,689; 11,814,439; and 11,884,740 specifically cover the composition and…
January 26, 2024 News by Marisa Wexler, MS MS guidelines by Spanish society stress early, effective treatment New guidelines from the Spanish Society of Neurology emphasize the importance of early diagnosis and prompt treatment in the management of people with multiple sclerosis (MS). These guidelines also highlight a need to move beyond traditional views of “first line” and “second line” MS treatments, suggesting instead a…
November 27, 2023 News by Margarida Maia, PhD New US patent likely to cover all vidofludimus calcium doses in MS The Patent and Trademark Office intends to grant a U.S. patent covering all dosing regimens of vidofludimus calcium ā being developed as IMU-838 ā for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS). That includes the doses being used in developer Immunic Therapeuticsā ongoing clinical program, according to a…
September 21, 2023 News by Patricia Inacio, PhD FDA clears first clinical study of investigational therapy LPX-TI641 Lapix Therapeutics is launching a Phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate LPX-TI641, its investigational treatment for autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), in healthy individuals. The first-in-human trial (NCT05853835) is expected to begin dosing later this year. It follows the recent clearance of an investigational new…
July 11, 2023 News by Mary Chapman EU project aims to identify best MS treatment for given patient using AI A European Union (EU) initiative is bringing scientists together to develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-based platform that could help in predicting the course of multiple sclerosis (MS) for each person. The consortium’s project, which aims to “offer clinicians a holistic overview of the MS patient” ā from disease…
June 13, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS 30 years after MS was first treatable, challenges remain amid triumphs It’s been three decades since the first treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) was approved. In that time, the field has made substantial advances ā including the approval of over two dozen medications ā but there’s still a long way to go to improve care for progressive forms of…
April 5, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Findings may help optimize therapy for patients considering Ocrevus The way Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) affects immune cell profiles of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) varies depending on what treatments they were on previously, a new study shows. Understanding these differences could help to optimize treatment approaches for MS patients considering Ocrevus, scientists say. The study, “…
March 22, 2023 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Experts call for testing for PML risk genes to guide MS treatments A pair of experts are calling for genetic tests to be developed to identify people at higher risk of developing progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a serious brain infection that can occur as a side effect of certain multiple sclerosis (MS) treatments. “The availability of a simple, relatively inexpensive test…
February 20, 2023 News by Teresa Carvalho, MS Lawrence Steinman honored for research on ties between EBV, MS Lawrence Steinman, MD, a professor of neurology who is leading the development of Pasithea Therapeutics‘ PAS002 for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) has received the 2023 Pioneer in Medicine Award. The prize is given by the Society for Brain Mapping & Therapeutics (SBMT) and the World Brain…
December 6, 2022 News by Marisa Wexler, MS Gut Microbiome Composition May Help Predict Treatment Side Effects Differences in the composition of the gut microbiome are associated with an altered risk of low immune cell counts as a side effect of treatment with the multiple sclerosis (MS) therapy Tecfidera (dimethyl fumarate). The findings provide further insights on how the gut microbiome ā the billions of…
October 7, 2022 News by Patricia Valerio, PhD Early Use of Tysabri Treatment Linked to Greater Benefits Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who started taking Tysabri (natalizumab) long after their diagnosis were found to have worsened disease progression. But those who began using it earlier showed less aggravated clinical and radiological outcomes of the disease than participants who started treatment later, a study showed. The study,…
September 2, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias Researchers Hit a Bump on the BTK Inhibitor Road A little over a year ago, I wrote about whether Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitors (BTKi’s) might be the next big thing in multiple sclerosis (MS) treatments. BTKi’s are small molecules that selectively block an enzyme thatās important for the activation of B-cells in the immune system and…
June 10, 2022 Columns by John Connor My Right Arm Is Going to Look Really Young I’ve just received four intramuscular Botox injections in my right arm to relieve the muscle spasticity that comes with multiple sclerosis. (OK, it wasnāt actually Botox, but Dysport, or abobotulinumtoxinA, another medication derived from the botulinum toxin to block muscle contractions.) And “my right arm is going…
April 4, 2022 Columns by Ed Tobias MS News That Caught My Eye Last Week: GA Depot, Blood-brain Barrier, Mindfulness Use of GA Depot in Treating Progressive MS Given US Patent In the area of MS treatments, one major need is for medications that treat more than just the relapsing form of our disease. GA Depot might help fill that void. The U.S. patent the medication received says it’s…
April 12, 2019 Columns by John Connor The Drugs Do Work … Better Than My Right Hand Last weekend a mother brought 4,000Ā£ ($5,200 U.S.) of medicinal cannabis from Holland into the U.K. for her daughter with severe epilepsy. It was confiscated by customs. Last year medicinal cannabis was partially legalized in the U.K. when a similar incident happened. Doctors can now issue prescriptions.
September 26, 2017 News by Ana Belo van Wijk, PhD Johns Hopkins Professors Receive $13.4M Grant to Study Best Approach to Treating RRMS The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has awarded $13.4 million to two scientists at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins UniversityĀ (JHU) to study how best to treatĀ newly diagnosed patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). The study will be led by Dr. Ellen Mowry,Ā an associate professor of neurology and epidemiology at…
April 3, 2017 Columns by Debi Wilson Is Ocrevus Right for Me? So Close, Yet So Far History has been made because of a major breakthrough for multiple sclerosis sufferers everywhere. Ocrevus (ocrelizumab),Ā by Genentech, has been finally approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It is the first drug treatment that includes my type of MS, primary progressive. This is what I’ve…
June 6, 2016 News by Patricia Silva, PhD #CMSC16 – MS Patients of African Descent May Fare Better on Alemtuzumab (Lemtrada) A study, recently presented at the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) 2016 Annual Meeting in National Harbor, Md., showed MS patients of African decent might better benefit from treatment with alemtuzumab (Lemtrada) compared to subcutaneous interferon beta-1a (Rebif) – with lower rates of relapses evident over five years…
February 3, 2016 News by Patricia Inacio, PhD MS Neurologist Argues for Continued Use of Natalizumab as Disease Treatment In a recent study ofĀ more than 1,200 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), a research team reported that treatment with the drug natalizumab (Tysabri) could lead to a tenfold increase in the levels of blood antibodies associated with a virus causing a rare but severe brain disease known as progressive multifocal…