Individuals with primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) have significantly higher concentrations of specific inflammation biomarkers in their spinal fluid than healthy people, an exploratory study shows. For most biomarkers, levels in PPMS patients were comparable to or lower than those seen in people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS).
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Temperature variability and increasing exposure to airborne pollutants — both consequences of climate change — can worsen disease symptoms and risk relapses in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a recent review study. Unwanted effects of environmental change were also linked to a number of other neurological conditions,…
An international panel is calling for new methods to classify multiple sclerosis (MS) that reflect the disease’s underlying biology, rather than differences in clinical presentation. The approach would fundamentally change how patients, clinicians, and other stakeholders understand and describe the disease, but would enable the development of biologically based…
A team of doctors, researchers, and patients has come up with a set of recommendations to help medical professionals in navigating difficult discussions with patients about brain atrophy — or shrinkage — with multiple sclerosis (MS). “Our goal is to minimize misunderstanding and apprehension about brain atrophy, also known…
Welcome to “MS News Notes,” where I comment on multiple sclerosis (MS) news stories that caught my eye last week. Here’s a look at what’s happening: Understanding stem cell therapy Researchers in Zurich wanted to understand what happens to the immune system of a person with MS undergoing a…
With a goal of better treatment and care for people with multiple sclerosis (MS), Verana Health is developing a neurology module for disease research that includes de-identified and curated real-world data covering more than 30,000 MS patients. The digital health company is developing Qdata MS to…
Most adults with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) who received Immunic Therapeutics‘ investigational therapy vidofludimus calcium have had no confirmed disability progression after two years of treatment. That’s according to new interim data from the open-label extension portion of the EMPhASIS trial, which has been running for nearly…
Among people with type 2 diabetes, the use of anti-hyperglycemic medications is associated with a reduced risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) for younger individuals, but an increased risk for older patients, particularly women. That’s according to the study “Age and sex differences on anti-hyperglycemic medication…
Dosing of NVG-291, NervGen Pharma’s investigational therapy for multiple sclerosis (MS) and other nervous system diseases, was completed in the third and final group of healthy postmenopausal women in a Phase 1 clinical trial. “Completing the dosing of the final [group] of postmenopausal females in the MAD [multiple…
Using a new approach to track signals traveling between different brain regions, researchers found that these signals are slower in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), even in regions with no apparent disease-related damage, a new study reports. The approach may help complement MRI findings to determine the extent of…
Following an autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant (aHSCT) in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), the population of “naïve” T-cells — components of the immune system that enable the body to fight off new, unrecognized infections — is completely renewed but some memory T-cells, which are responsible for rapid responses…
Medications account for the majority of costs related to managing multiple sclerosis (MS) in Italy, and secondary-progressive MS (SPMS) is associated with higher treatment and healthcare costs than those for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), a study looking at real-world data reported. “A bigger healthcare resource consumption was retrieved for…
Scientists have identified a number of antibodies that can bind to the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) — a major risk factor for multiple sclerosis (MS) — and prevent its infection of human cells. The antibodies might offer new approaches to treat or prevent infection in groups of people most…
Timing doses of rituximab by measuring B-cell counts is a more tailored approach to treatment, and it effectively reduces relapses and disability progression in multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a small study in patients with active disease. This tailored approach allowed patients to receive less frequent doses if their B-cell counts…
Welcome to “MS News Notes,” where I comment on multiple sclerosis (MS) news stories that caught my eye last week. Here’s a look at what’s happening: Could a nasal spray join the MS treatment arsenal? Shots, pills, and infusions are approved in the U.S. as disease-modifying therapies for MS,…
Dietary interventions may help ease fatigue and improve quality of life in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), although it doesn’t seem to impact disability progression, according to a new analysis. Researchers emphasized that it’s difficult to draw solid conclusions about the impact of diet in MS because there haven’t…
Tiziana Life Sciences plans to request a meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) later this year to discuss the upcoming Phase 2 clinical trial of foralumab nasal spray in people with nonactive secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS). FDA feedback on the design of the…
Worse disability scores in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with restless legs syndrome (RLS) were significantly associated with the thinning of a retinal layer in the eye in a new study. Overall, the study found that people with MS who experience RLS exhibit more severe disability than those…
Measuring how lesions get bigger over time in multiple sclerosis (MS) can predict long-term disability progression more accurately than other lesion-based assessments, a new study reports. “Enlargement of T2 [total] lesions, and specifically of its volume, … is more strongly associated with long-term disability progression compared to other…
In this installment of our “Expert Voices” series, Multiple Sclerosis News Today asked Brandon Beaber, MD, to answer some of your questions about research into the causes of multiple sclerosis (MS). Beaber is a board-certified neurologist and MS specialist. He makes videos about MS on YouTube and…
Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with minimal to moderate disability live about 30 additional years after their diagnosis, but life expectancy steadily decreases as patients reach more advanced levels of disability, a new study suggests. For example, average life expectancy drops to just over a decade when patients become unable to…
With an overarching goal of improving patients’ health and life quality, Saint Louis University (SLU) has opened an institute for neuroscience researchers working in a variety of fields to study disorders of the central nervous system, including multiple sclerosis (MS). The Institute for Translational Neuroscience (ITN), an outgrowth of the…
A group of four patients have entered a special program where they’ll gain access to foralumab nasal spray, an experimental therapy that’s being tested for non-active secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS). This is the first group of four who entered Tiziana Life Sciences’ intermediate-size expanded access program.
A National Multiple Sclerosis Society grant is supporting an Australian-led research team aiming to better understand how the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) may be acting as a trigger for multiple sclerosis (MS). The funding will particularly be used to understand what molecules are being targeted by lymphocytes, immune cells that…
In an early clinical trial, Atara Biotherapeutics’ investigational treatment ATA188 stabilized or eased disability in most people with nonactive, progressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) — with those benefits now having been sustained for up to four years. For MS patients, in whom disability progressively accumulates over time,…
The experimental therapy ublituximab works better than the approved treatment Aubagio (teriflunomide) at easing disability independently of relapses, and at reducing overall disease activity, in adults with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). That’s according to exploratory analyses of pooled data from the identical ULTIMATE I…
Ocrevus (ocrelizumab), an anti-CD20 therapy developed by Genentech, seems to be superior to rituximab at lowering relapse rates among patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), according to data from two large MS registries. Overall, the findings suggest that rituximab cannot be considered just as good as —…
Recently diagnosed multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with two forms of chronic active brain lesions — slowly expanding lesions (SELs) and paramagnetic rim lesions (PRLs) — on their MRI scans experience greater disability progression than those with SELs only, a small study suggests. Also, the slowly expanding lesions are…
Here are a few multiple sclerosis (MS) stories that caught my eye last week. Two of them came out of this year’s Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS). Ocrevus treatment More than 250,000 people with MS have been treated with the…
Genetic variants in genes mostly active in the brain and spinal cord — the central nervous system — are associated with the severity of multiple sclerosis (MS), and linked to a faster accrual of disability and greater signs of brain tissue damage, a new study found. Importantly, researchers estimated…