research

Tracking patients’ progress is a critical part of MS management, a process that can benefit from greater objective analysis. Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic have determined that tablet computers, which feature built-in technologies like accelerometers, gyroscopes, and touchscreens, when combined with appropriate software, can provide pretty good MS assessment capabilities.

Fatigue, a common symptom of multiple sclerosis, could be a result of regional damage in the brain. A study published in Radiology by a group in Italy led by Massimo Filippi, MD, from Vita-Salute San Raffaele University showed that local, rather than global, atrophy is associated with fatigue.

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is accepting submissions for the first edition of the Marilyn Hilton Award for Innovation in Multiple Sclerosis Research, which will support novel and potentially paradigm-shifting research on Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The award will grant up to $6 million in funding to several projects over a four-year…

Researchers at the Kessler Foundation bolstered the knowledge of cognitive decline in multiple sclerosis patients with an article published in Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders. This longitudinal study is one of the longest among studies of cognition in multiple sclerosis. “While cognitive impairment is known to affect…

The Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche recently announced a partnership agreement with California-based Inception Sciences and venture capital firm Versant Ventures. The three companies will work together to form a new company, Inception 5, which will be dedicated mostly to the development of therapies for multiple sclerosis. Inception 5’s research will focus…

A team of researchers from the University of Saint Louis has found a molecular pathway involved in a painful chemotherapy side effects, and a drug that might be able to stop it. Paclitaxel (also known as Taxol) is a chemotherapy drug commonly used to treat different forms of cancer…

Multiple sclerosis patients may soon benefit from StemGenex’s leading resource of adult adipose stem cells. StemGenex is now recruiting patients for a clinical trial investigating the regenerative potential of multiple sclerosis patients’ autologous stem cells derived from their own stromal vascular fraction. “Currently available drugs for multiple…

On June 26th, a conference devoted to the topic of “Demyelination and Remyelination: From Mechanism to Therapy” will be presented by the New York Academy of Sciences and Acorda Therapeutics. The topic hits home to millions of people worldwide suffering from demyelinating diseases, especially those affected by multiple sclerosis.

Newtown, Pennsylvania based Helius Medical Technologies, Inc. announced on June 6th that the company has entered into an agreement and plan of merger whereby the Company has agreed to acquire 100% of issued and outstanding common shares of Neurohabilitation Corporation (“Neuro”) of Delaware by way of a plan of…

Biogen Idec, who recently presented over 60 company-sponsored presentations at the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers and the Sixth Cooperative Meeting with Americas Committee for Treatment and…

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can predict responses to depression treatment in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to Anthony Feinstein, Professor at the Department of Psychiatry of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre & the University of Toronto. In the presentation “Depression in MS: Is brain imaging helpful?” at this…

A new study may offer new insight on beneficial effects of “chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency” (CCSVI or CCVI) treatment for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and certain other disease conditions. CCSVI is the controversial theory that blocked neck veins are a major factor in many MS cases proposed by Italian physician…

A team of magnetic imaging scientists led by Dr. Ravi Menon, PhD, at the University of Western Ontario’s Robarts Research Institute have developed a better way to track the progression of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) from its very early stages. The Robarts researchers used a technique called Quantitative Susceptibility…

ImStem Biotechnology, Inc. is one step closer to harnessing the power of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to treat multiple sclerosis. Most recently, ImStem announced the successful treatment of an animal model of multiple sclerosis (experimental autoimmune encephalitis, EAE) using mesenchymal stem cells derived from hESCs (hES-MSCs). Using hES-MSCs…

Charles Moore, Science and Research Editor of Multiple Sclerosis News Today, recently reported two controversial, potential treatment options for multiple sclerosis. The first, “liberation therapy,” was conjured by Dr. Paolo Zamboni in…

snig / Shutterstock.com Following yesterday’s publication of “Multiple Sclerosis Management – A Changing Landscape 2013,” a report outlining ongoing goals and focus points for advancing MS drugs and treatments, as a result of a meeting of specialists in Vienna, Austria, a new article…

Biogen Idec is currently sponsoring a clinical trial evaluating its therapy Tysabri (natalizumab) in patients with secondary-progressive multiple sclerosis. Although relapse-remitting multiple sclerosis is more common and well-researched, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society estimates approximately half of relapse-remitting patients will transition to secondary-progressive within 19 years of diagnosis. The…

A new report was recently released outlining researchers’ ongoing goals and focus points for advancing MS drug development and treatment options. “Multiple Sclerosis Management – A Changing Landscape 2013” is the result of a meeting held in Vienna, Austria in April of 2013 that brought together 372…

A secondary analysis of data from a previous trial of an Internet-based exercise intervention in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) suggests that the program wasn’t as effective on the subgroups of MS patients to whom physical activity is more important, reports John Gever…

Research from the State University of New York at Buffalo suggests a protective link between interferon beta-1a treatment and brain volume loss (atrophy) in patients with relapse-remitting multiple sclerosis. Michael Dwyer, PhD, presented his study at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) and…

Another study, in what has become a succession of Canadian studies, has failed to detect a link between blocked neck veins and multiple sclerosis proposed by Italian physician and researcher Dr. Paolo Zamboni in 2008 (a report in the Lancet noted that this hypothesis was originally posed by…

A new study on mice published in Nature Neuroscience finds that fingolimod (Novartis brand name Gilenya) a first-in-class sphingosine-1-phosphate-receptor modulator currently used in treating persons with severe relapsing remitting MS, may also have therapeutic value in treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The Nature Neuroscience study is titled…

Two pharmaceutical companies, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) and Active Biotech, have just confirmed reports that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) is not recommending NERVENTRA (laquinimod) for use in treating relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) within the European Union (EU), according to a recent press release. Despite CHMP’s disapproval of TEVA…

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, a drug development company working on treatments that modulate therapeutically important immune responses with the help of T-cells, recently acquired the worldwide rights (apart from China), to conduct pre-clinical studies to produce products for possible therapies to treat and manage Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

A new study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association Neurology says that predicting disease evolution is becoming essential for optimizing treatment decision-making in multiple sclerosis (MS), in which pathologic damage typically includes demyelination, neuro-axonal loss, and astrogliosis. The study, entitled “Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy…

Positive study results from a preliminary phase II clinical trial for a new potential therapeutic intervention for the treatment of patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) were recently released at the American Academy of Neurology’s Annual Meeting in Philadelphia by Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl, M.D., from the University of California, Los Angeles.

A group of researchers led by Shin-ichiro Imai, MD, PhD, and Liana Roberts Stein, PhD, from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have been working on pathways to trace cognitive decline in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). It has been noted in previous research that brain cells derive energy for maintaining…

Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), the University of California (UC), Irvine and The University of Utah report that mice crippled by an autoimmune disease similar to multiple sclerosis (MS) regained the ability to walk and run after a team of researchers implanted human stem cells…

Opexa Therapeutics, Inc., a drug delivery company based in The Woodlands, Texas, has been making significant progress in researching and developing Tcelna®, a breakthrough T-cell immunotherapy for multiple sclerosis (MS). The company recently announced they have reached their enrollment mark for conducting a Phase IIb clinical trial to test Tcelna as a viable…

Patients with multiple sclerosis may benefit from improving blood fats, otherwise known as serum lipids, according to a new study from University of Tasmania in Australia published in Multiple Sclerosis…