research

A substance that the pancreas secretes can promote the regeneration of the protective nerve-cell coating that is damaged in multiple sclerosis, a mouse study shows. The substance is fibroblast growth factor 21, or FGF21. It promotes remyelination, the renewal of the myelin sheath protecting the central nervous system, according to the…

Horseback Riding Plus Standard Care Can Help MS Patients Improve Balance, Other Symptoms Absolutely, it can. I don’t need to read this study to know that because I’ve been there, done that. About five years ago, at 64, I got back on a horse for the first…

Beth Kantor, 42, now knows what it really means to get down in the dirt. For the past four years, she’s volunteered as a first-aid assistant at the annual Twin Cities MuckFest, a fundraising event that the National Multiple Sclerosis Society organized in suburban Minneapolis. But this year, Kantor decided it…

Omega-3 fatty acids might reduce inflammatory processes by boosting a mechanism that cleans out dysfunctional or unnecessary proteins in a certain type of immune cells, according to a study published in the journal Autophagy. These insights indicate that omega-3 supplements might be beneficial for certain multiple sclerosis (MS) patients,…

Topas Therapeutics and Eli Lilly and Company are teaming up to develop compounds that could be used to treat inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and diabetes. The compounds, based on a Topas technology platform, will be aimed at restoring immune tolerance. Immune tolerance refers to the immune system being unresponsive to certain antigens — for instance, the body’s own proteins. Without immune tolerance, the body can generate an excessive immune response that prompts the immune system to attack healthy organs or tissue — a process called autoimmunity Under the multiyear agreement, Topas will receive research and development funding. It will also receive financial rewards from the success of any drug developed under the collaboration. The agreement will give Lilly the option to license all therapies created under the collaboration, and to develop them further. "We are excited to be working with Lilly to generate drug candidates using our proprietary technology," Timm Jessen, the CEO of Topas Therapeutics, said in a press release. "We expect this work to support the value of our approach" of triggering immune tolerance against antigens, he said. The fact that an important pharmaceutical company like Lilly is interested "in our technology, we believe, supports the strong commercial potential of our work." Topas develops compounds against autoimmune reactions — that is, situations in which the immune system attacks healthy parts of the body. It is already developing treatments for multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, celiac disease, and other autoimmune disorders. While the majority of such therapies try to shut down the immune system, Topas’ approach is to trigger antigen-specific immune tolerance. This allows the body to regain control over an excessive immune response, while sparing the body's normal immunity. Topas links its compounds to tiny nanoparticles that liver sinusoidal endothelial cells can absorb. The liver cells are the first place where immune T-cells can learn what the body should not fight against. In studies of mice with multiple sclerosis, a single injection of nanoparticles containing peptides found in neurons triggered a potent protective effect, improving the disease's symptoms and blocking its progression. Peptides are components of proteins. "Lilly is committed to be an innovation leader in immunology," said Dr. Thomas F. Bumol, senior vice president of biotechnology and immunology research at Lilly. "Topas has a very novel approach to immune tolerance induction, which we would like to see successfully applied to certain disease-relevant antigens. We look forward to working together with Topas on their unique platform."

A multiple sclerosis study will collect information about patients' movement performance and symptoms from their smartphones, Novartis has reported. The study is aimed at evaluating in real time the daily challenges of people living with MS. The results may help researchers develop new ways to measure treatments' effectiveness, the company said. Novartis is partnering on what it has dubbed the elevateMS study with Sage Bionetworks. The non-profit research organization is developing new predictors of disease to accelerate health research. A cellphone application will allow MS patients to send information about their situation from anywhere. The app will use sensors to gather information on patients' movements. It will also assess functional performance tasks that participants engage in. Patients can also fill out questionnaires with the app. A division of Apple called the Apple ResearchKit platform developed the app. Those interested in participating in the study can download it here. The elevateMS app allows a smartphone user to register important features of their disease. It includes a symptom tracker tool that allows users to record their overall wellness. They can also get an overview of what's been happening to them on an activity dashboard. Patients, neurologists and disease advocates gave Apple's app team input that helped with the design. "As physicians, we always want to know how our patients with MS are doing on the treatments we prescribe," Dr. Stanley Cohan, medical director of the Providence Multiple Sclerosis Center in Portland, Oregon, said in a press release. "With the elevateMS app, study participants can frequently document their symptoms in a personal health story," said Cohan, one of the scientific advisors to the study. "In turn, this data may provide researchers with new ways to look at disease progression and treatment effectiveness." The elevateMS study is open to MS patients 18 years old or older in the United States who own a smartphone. Additional information about it is available at www.elevatems.org.

Nortis, a Seattle-based biotech company, has received a $688,000 grant by the National Institutes of Health to create a living, 3-D model of the human blood-brain barrier that will be used for laboratory testing to accelerate drug development and lessen the likelihood of failure in clinical trials. This grant provides funding for a third year of a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award given to Nortis by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a branch of the NIH. SBIR provides grants to U.S.-based small businesses to do federal research and enable the commercialization of technology. The blood-brain barrier is a tissue barrier that only allows certain molecules to pass from blood vessels into the brain. It is a protective mechanism to prevent the entry of foreign bodies and infection-causing organisms in the brain. Researchers are trying to find ways of delivering medications across this barrier, to reach brain tissues to treat diseases that include multiple sclerosis. "Understanding how drugs are transported across the blood-brain barrier and interact with the brain presents a significant scientific challenge," Thomas Neumann, CEO of Nortis and principal investigator on the project, said in a press release. "More predictive preclinical models based on human tissue are urgently needed to reduce costs and minimize clinical trial failures," he added. "This grant will help us develop new in-vitro alternatives to traditional pharmaceutical drug development testing on laboratory animals."

Chronic stress and inflammation in the brain can cause multi-organ dysfunction including severe gut failure, mediated by a newly identified nerve pathway in animal models of multiple sclerosis, a Japanese study shows. MS is an autoimmune disease caused by CD4+ T-cells that cross the blood-brain barrier protecting the central nervous system. This inflames and stresses the brain and spinal cord. In previous studies, a team led by professor Masaaki Murakami of Japan's Hokkaido University showed that these cells could cross the blood-brain barrier in specific sites. These entrance sites depend on brain regional activation, which was found to be triggered by specific nerve interactions — a mechanism the team called gateway reflexes. In collaboration with other Japanese researchers and a team from Germany, the project aimed to address the potential correlation among chronic stress, brain inflammation and organ failures in MS. Using mice with MS-like disease — the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis model — researchers found that animals that had autoreactive CD4+ T-cells and which were exposed to stressful conditions developed severe symptoms such as gastrointestinal failure, or even death. Detailed analysis of the animals' brains showed that in stressed mice, CD4+ T-cells accumulated in two specific sites in the center of the brain around blood vessels. This event would cause inflammation around those vessels, and activation of a nerve pathway that is commonly turned off. This switch led to gut dysfunction, bleeding and failure. "These results demonstrate a direct link between brain micro-inflammation and fatal gastrointestinal diseases via the establishment of a new neural pathway under stress," Murakami, the study's senior author, said in a news release. Researchers were able to prevent gut symptoms by inhibiting inflammation in the brain or blocking the nerve pathway responsible for driving the signals from the brain to the gastrointestinal tract. "Micro-inflammation in the brain is also seen in Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease," Murakamai concluded. "So it's of particular interest to investigate possible connections between brain micro-inflammations and organ dysfunctions, including those within the brain itself, in those patients."

Brain donation for multiple sclerosis research optimizes the chances that a cure might be discovered. It might result in a vaccine or other preemptive strike to prevent the disability from starting in the first place. As addressed in a previous column, there is a shortage…

A new and potentially important mechanism in the development of autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis was discovered by scientists at the University of Freiburg, Germany. They identify a protein, called Caveolin-1, that is essential to immune cells called B-cells working as intended to protect a person from pathogens or — in its absence…

British military personnel are at significantly higher risk of dying from multiple sclerosis than people in other occupations, a study reports. University of Southampton researchers had done a previous study of mortality rates by occupation by checking records of residents of England and Wales. They noticed that the death rate among MS patients in the armed forces was much higher than that of people in other professions over three successive decades. MS has a genetic component but is also influenced by environmental factors, including vitamin D deficiency, smoking and certain viruses. Researchers wanted to learn why so many military people die of MS, and the causes. The team looked at the death records of men aged 20-74 between 1979 and 2010. They compared military people's MS-related mortality rates and death rates from all motor neuron diseases with those of other occupations. They also compared rates across social classes, which in the military presumably means lower-ranking enlisted people, higher-ranking enlisted people, and officers. They discovered that the MS-related mortality rate among military people was significantly higher than in other professions. The death rate from MS was also significantly higher than the rate from all motor neuron diseases in the armed forces. Interestingly, military people did not have a higher MS-related death rate when the team divided those in the study into three social classes or when they compared the armed forces mortality rate to those of similar occupations, such as police and fire services. The consistency of the findings, together with the high statistical significance observed, indicated that the results were not due to simple chance or a problem with the study method, the team said. They speculated that the higher military death rate could stem from the close proximity in which military personnel live and work, which could facilitate the transmission of infections that have the potential to cause MS. The results conflicted with those of a study that analyzed hospital admissions due to MS in a population of former military personnel. It reported no increased incidence of MS-related admissions in former military people, compared with non-military controls. Since such cohort studies are less prone to bias, the Southampton team called for more research on the topic.

of the neurons.

The online multiple sclerosis community GeneFo will hold a webinar next week to discuss the latest research findings on how mitochondrial antioxidants may affect MS. The webinar, which will be open to patients who register, will start at 1 p.m. U.S. Eastern Standard Time on Thursday, Aug. 24. GeneFo…

I stood at the front door of my house and could only shake my head as I watched the backhoe digging a deep trench in my yard. A sewer line malfunction created a mess in my basement and it turned out to be a broken clay pipe in…

The risk of people with multiple sclerosis developing cancer is higher if they have used immunosuppressants than if they haven’t, according to a study that followed more than 1,000 patients for a decade. The findings indicate that the often discussed association between MS and cancer may stem from older types of…

A new study highlights a crucial role for the enzyme protein tyrosine phosphatase N2 in the development of early immune T-cells, and suggests that decreased levels of this enzyme can lead to the production of subsets of T-cells that contribute to the development of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. T-cells, which are a type of immune cells that fight infection, are composed of multiple subsets that have different roles in immunity. Researchers at Monash University set out to characterize the role of PTPN2 in early T-cell development and in the development of T-cell subsets αβ TCR and γδ TCR. To do this, researchers deleted the gene coding for PTPN2 and looked at the resulting T-cell population. Results demonstrated that the deletion of PTPN2 led to the production of γδ T-cells with pro-inflammatory properties that have been associated with many autoimmune diseases by inhibiting certain pathways that regulate proper T-cell development. “This is an important advance in our understanding of critical checkpoints in T-cell development,” Tony Tiganis, principal research fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Monash University in Australia, said in a press release. “It helps decide whether the progenitors go on to become T-cells or something else; if they become one type of T-cell or another type.” Interestingly, there are already drugs that target some of the pathways that PTPN2 regulates, which could lead to the use of existing drugs to treat some of these autoimmune diseases, including MS. “Understanding the mechanisms that govern early T-cell development and how these are altered in human disease may ultimately afford opportunities for novel treatments. This is very exciting,” said Florian Wiede, a post-doctoral candidate at Monash and first author of the study.

Secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) patients have larger quantities of certain antibodies to the stomach ulcer bacterium Helicobacter pylori than those with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RMSS), finds a Greek study which also showed that MS patients in general differ from healthy people in this aspect. Although researchers at the University of Thessaly think…

I was surprised to see that a study of a potential MS drug labeled MD1003 is still accepting participants. It’s a study that I’d love to take part in, if only I was a few years younger. MD1003 is a high dose of biotin, a form of…

The Americas Committee for the Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis, otherwise known as ACTRIMS, says its third annual ACTRIMS Forum will take place Feb. 1-3, 2018, at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront in San Diego, California. These forums bolster the ACTRIMS mission, which is to foster the careers of young researchers interested in MS by promoting mentor relationships with senior scientists, and giving promising investigators a chance to present their early research findings. ACTRIMS 2017 was a record-breaking year with over 800 people attending. Organizers say 1,000 people will attend this year's conference. The 2018 forum's theme is “Therapeutic Targets in MS: The Frontier and the Future of Disease Modifying Therapy.” ACTRIMS 2018 also features continuing medical education credits for attendees, as well as participation grants for applicable young investigators.

University of California at San Francisco Recruiting MS Patients for Gut Bacteria Study Last year, a Harvard study reported significant differences between bacteria that MS patients have in their bellies and that found in those who don’t have MS. If that bacteria is treated, those MS-related changes might…

Atara Biotherapeutics recently published an update of the company’s quarterly financial results and operational highlights, including the advancement of its T-cell based immunotherapy strategies for multiple sclerosis (MS) and cancer. One of the investigational therapies featured in the report is ATA188, a potential treatment for MS.

A bacteria present in the gut, called Prevotella histicola, prevented multiple sclerosis from developing in a preclinical mouse model, found researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, along with colleagues at the University of Iowa. Current research suggests that alterations to the gut microbiome residing in human intestines may potentially trigger inflammatory diseases such as MS. In an attempt to identify which gut resident bacteria are capable of modulating immune responses, researchers studied cultured small pieces of intestine tissue extracted from biopsies of patients with celiac disease. The team then isolated three bacteria strains and found that one of species — P. histicola — had the capacity to suppress MS in a preclinical animal model of the disease. “This is an early discovery but an avenue that bears further study," Dr. Joseph Murray, a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and the study's lead author, said in a press release. "If we can use the microbes already in the human body to treat human disease beyond the gut itself, we may be onto a new era of medicine. We are talking about bugs as drugs." By investigating how P. histicola modulated immune responses to suppress MS, researchers found that bacteria decreased the expression of two pro-inflammatory cytokines – interferon-gamma and interleukin (IL)-17. Overall results show that P. histicola has immune modulatory activity and can suppress abnormal immune responses, which ultimately prevent autoimmunity. This supports the idea that maintaining a healthy microbial community within our intestines is a potential therapeutic strategy for MS. "Our work is a classic example of a bedside-to-bench and potentially back to bedside study. Recent MS microbiome studies have shown the lack of Prevotella genus in patients with the disease and an increase when patients were treated with disease-modifying drugs," said Ashutosh Mangalam, the study's first author and an assistant professor of pathology at University of Iowa's Carver College of Medicine. "And it's not just for MS, because this may have a similar modulating effect on other nervous system and autoimmune diseases."

Children with multiple sclerosis consume less iron, which may affect their immune and nervous systems, according to a study. Most MS cases occur between the ages of 20 and 40, but sometimes children under 18 develop it. Pediatric-onset MS, as it is called, is believed to account for 3 to 5 percent of cases that adults have now. Despite their low frequency, they are important because "the study of factors early in life which could affect their disease may provide important insight into the disease more generally," the researchers from the Network of Pediatric MS Centers wrote. One of the factors that could be important in the onset of MS is diet. But little has been known about how diet influences the risk and progression of the disease, particularly in pediatric MS. In a study funded by the National MS Society, researchers decided to investigate the association between diet and MS in children, according to a press release. The team recruited 312 MS patients 18 and younger from 16 children's hospitals in the United States, and 456 controls without MS. The participants, or their parents, answered a questionnaire dealing with the participants' medical history, their physical development, and whether they were exposed to potentially harmful environmental factors. The questionnaire also covered demographic information and race. Researchers used the Block Kids Food Screener questionnaire to obtain information about the participants' diets, including their intake of fiber, fat, carbohydrates, proteins, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and iron. The analysis showed no meaningful link between the consumption of fiber, fat, carbohydrates, proteins, fruits, vegetables, and dairy products and children's development of MS. Children with the disease did have lower iron intake than the controls, however. Although in this exploratory study researchers didn’t look at whether there was a cause-and-effect relationship between iron and MS, the results suggested that children with the disease may be less likely to consume iron, a fact that warrants further investigation. Iron is a vital mineral for our body to function properly, and low iron intake may affect the immune and nervous systems. Future studies on the risk of children developing MS should "investigate the role of specific vitamins and minerals," the team said. They should also "investigate the influence of dietary factors on disease outcomes in already established" cases of MS.

University of California medical school researchers are looking for multiple sclerosis patients who want to participate in an international study of the bacteria that live in our gut. The University of California at San Francisco team decided to study the gut microbiome after recent evidence suggested that it is critical in…

Coming down with the flu can provoke relapses in multiple sclerosis patients by activating glial cells that surround and protect nerve cells. In a study in mice, scientists found that activated glial cells increase the levels of a chemical messenger in the brain that, in turn, triggers an immune reaction and, potentially, autoimmune attacks. The flu is caused by the human influenza virus and, despite being unpleasant, usually resolves itself within days. However, for people with MS and other neurological conditions, the flu can lead to disease relapse. Researchers at the University of Illinois investigated what happens in the brain of MS patients during upper-respiratory viral infections, such as the flu. "We know that when MS patients get upper respiratory infections, they're at risk for relapse, but how that happens is not completely understood," Andrew Steelman, an assistant professor at the university and the study's senior author, said in a press release. "A huge question is what causes relapse, and why immune cells all of a sudden want to go to the brain. Why don't they go to the toe?" The team used a mouse model characterized by autoimmune responses within the brain and spinal cord — the type of deregulated immune responses seen in MS patients. Researchers infected the animals with a version of human influenza virus adapted to mice, and looked at changes that occurred in the animal’s central nervous system. While the virus was never detected in the animals' brains, upon infection some of the mice developed MS-like symptoms. "If you look at a population of MS patients that have symptoms of upper respiratory disease, between 27 and 42 percent will relapse within the first week or two," Steelman said. "That's actually the same incidence and timeframe we saw in our infected mice, although we thought it would be much higher given that most of the immune cells in this mouse strain are capable of attacking the brain." The team then investigated how a peripheral influenza infection could contribute to disease onset. They infected a wild-type (normal) strain of mice with the flu virus and looked at alterations in the brain and spinal cord. Scientists found that infection increased the activation of glial cells in the mice's brains. Moreover, it induced infiltration of several immune cells — T-cells, monocytes and neutrophils — into the brain within eight hours of infection. Overall, these findings suggest that the chemokine CXCL5 plays a key role in mediating an autoimmune attack in MS, and might be explored for therapeutic potential.

Advancells says its stem cell-based therapy completely reversed multiple sclerosis (MS) in an Indian pilot trial with only one MS patient. The patient, Rahul Gupta, was diagnosed with MS seven years ago and has since suffered multiple relapses. His disease was progressing fast and he was quickly losing his ability…

Multiple sclerosis damages human brains, so MS researchers often study mice brains. How can multiple sclerosis be cured or prevented without studies of human brains? Researchers need the anatomical bequests of MS brains. Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center Harvard University specifically collects and studies brains (and brain tissue),…

For the first time, scientists have shown they can correct gene mutations in human embryos — a breakthrough with implications for multiple sclerosis (MS) and several other diseases. This landmark study was a collaboration involving scientists at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California; the Oregon Health & Science University in…

Resistance Training Can Slow MS Patients’ Brain Shrinkage, Clinical Trial Indicates Over the years, studies have shown the benefits of various types of exercise in improving MS symptoms. But here, Alice Melão reports about a small…

An exoskeleton developed by Harvard University researchers could restore multiple sclerosis patients’ balance and some of their walking capability, according to a study. ReWalk Robotics is moving toward commercializing the system, developed at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. In addition to MS patients, the exosuit should help people with Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative conditions,…