The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted fast track status to KYV-101, Kyverna Therapeutics’ cell-based therapy candidate for people with progressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) that are treatment-resistant. The FDA designation is intended to accelerate the development of therapies that aim to address unmet medical…
SPMS
Six of eight patients with nonactive secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) being treated with foralumab nasal spray — all part of an intermediate-size expanded access program (EAP) allowing the therapy’s use — have experienced reductions in their fatigue levels. That’s according to treatment developer Tiziana Life Sciences,…
Tiziana Life Sciences has dosed the first patient in a Phase 2a clinical trial testing its foralumab nasal spray in people with nonactive secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS). The trial will include about 54 participants, enrolled across six clinical sites. Patients will be randomly assigned to receive one of two…
MediciNova announced the approval of a European patent covering the use of ibudilast (MN-166) in combination with interferon-beta medications to treat progressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) — primary progressive MS (PPMS) and secondary progressive MS (SPMS) — in patients previously using an interferon-beta.
A new clinical trial in Australia, called PLATYPUS, will simultaneously test two medications that have already been approved for other conditions in people with progressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). The study, expected to launch in January, will use an adaptive design, meaning data will be analyzed as…
Tiziana Life Sciences has dosed four new participants in an expanded access program investigating its foralumab nasal spray in people with nonactive secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS), the company announced. A total of 10 SPMS patients are now being followed outside of clinical trials in foralumab’s expanded…
People with multiple sclerosis (MS) engage in significantly more sedentary behaviors — activities like watching TV or using a computer or smartphone versus those requiring physical movement, such as exercise — than do individuals without the progressive disease, according to a pooled analysis of published studies. This effect was…
A novel therapy in which neural stem cells are injected into the brain was well tolerated by 15 people with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) in a pilot clinical trial. Participants’ disability levels and cognition, as well as markers of inflammation and nerve damage, all remained stable for up…
People with multiple sclerosis (MS) who discontinue a disease-modifying treatment are more likely to have greater long-term disability than patients who continue with such therapies or go untreated, a registry database study reports. Findings also suggest that patients who self-report better mobility early in their disease course also…
COVID-19 doesn’t appear to increase the likelihood of a relapse, where new symptoms suddenly appear or existing ones worsen, for people with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a meta-analysis of more than a dozen studies. The findings alleviate some of the concerns MS patients may have about developing COVID-19,…
More activity among certain immune cells, as well as differences in immune signaling molecules, iron regulation, and fat metabolism, may explain why multiple sclerosis (MS) progresses more over time in some people than in others, researchers report. These findings may help to better understand the molecular mechanisms leading to…
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…
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…
Welcome to “MS News Notes,” a column where I comment on multiple sclerosis (MS) news stories that caught my eye last week. This week, the stories cover research presented at the joint meeting of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) and the…
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,…
Most disability worsening events happen independent of relapse activity across all types of multiple sclerosis (MS), including clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) and early relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), a new study reports. The findings challenge the idea that relapses are the main driver of disability worsening in early relapsing…
Tiziana Life Sciences has started to recruit clinical sites for a Phase 2a clinical trial that will investigate its foralumab nasal spray in people with nonactive secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS). The announcement follows a meeting with the principal investigators of the trial at Brigham and Women’s…
Two non-pharmacological rehabilitation approaches — one using a computer program designed to improve working memory and the other involving standardized cognitive-behavioral group sessions — both improved the cognitive function of people with progressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS), a new study reported. While varying medications often are used as…
Greater self-reported physical disability within the first years of being diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) is associated with a higher likelihood of transitioning to a progressive form of the disease. The finding comes from a recent analysis of patient-reported data from the U.K. MS Register. Scientists believe the…
A global Phase 2 clinical trial investigating the oral therapy vidofludimus calcium (IMU-838) in people with progressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) has reached full enrollment, the treatment’s developer, Immunic Therapeutics, reports. Called CALLIPER (NCT05054140), the trial is assessing whether the neuroprotective effects of vidofludimus calcium seen in…
People with multiple sclerosis (MS) with a rapid decline in walking abilities were more likely to be older when first examined, female, or Black, according to a large data study in the U.S. Other factors associated with worsening walking impairment over time included living with MS longer, having progressive…
Experiencing disability in the early stages of multiple sclerosis (MS), even without relapses, increases the risk of progression to secondary progressive MS (SPMS), a more severe form of the disease, a large study finds. Starting a disease-modifying therapy early on in the disease may decrease the SPMS…
Since their launch in the 2010s, the use of oral disease-modifying treatments (DMTs) for multiple sclerosis (MS) has increased substantially, while injectable DMTs have become less popular, according to a study based on U.S. commercial health insurance data. “While two injectable therapies known as platform injectables, were once the…
Changes in the gene activity within immune T-cells explain why women with multiple sclerosis (MS) improve during pregnancy, a study reports. Gene activity changes during and after pregnancy were highly similar between MS patients and healthy women. Many of the genes whose activity was altered during pregnancy were associated…
It’s been three decades since the first treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) was approved. In that time, the field has made substantial advances — including the approval of over two dozen medications — but there’s still a long way to go to improve care for progressive forms of…
Welcome to “MS News Notes,” a Monday morning column where I comment on multiple sclerosis (MS) news stories that caught my eye last week. Here’s a look at what’s been happening: Foralumab shows early positive results for SPMS I’ll say up front that this is a very small study.
Reductions in microglial activation have been observed in the brains of five of six patients with nonactive secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) who received treatment with Tiziana Life Science’s foralumab nasal spray. Microglia, resident immune cells in the brain, are believed to play a role in driving inflammation…
An updated snapshot of multiple sclerosis (MS) in the U.S. — provided by new population estimates from a study of insurance data — shows a greater prevalence of MS among white and Black people compared with other racial and ethnic groups. But overall, the neurodegenerative disorder has become more…
Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) reduces brain volume loss in people with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) to levels similar to those seen in healthy aging, a small study reports. “These findings are consistent with an important role of inflammation on overall tissue loss and the role of ocrelizumab in…
Supplements with tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) were generally well tolerated among people with progressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS), according to findings from a small clinical trial. Results also showed that patients given TUDCA supplements had lower levels of certain inflammatory immune cells than those given a placebo, but no…