treatment

Professor Steve Wilton and Dr. Rakesh Veedu from Murdoch University’s Centre for Comparative Genomics in Western Australia received project grants of $50,000 and $25,000, respectively, to investigate and develop new methods for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS). The grants are part of $1.834 million in research funding given by MS…

Interventions to improve balance in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) have produced varying results, but a small clinical trial showed that balance training using a virtual reality tool could help people with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and might improve adherence to training. Virtual reality tools are a popular training approach, not least because compliance to…

Microglial cells in the hippocampus, a brain region crucial for memory processing, may contribute to brain damage associated with cognitive impairment in multiple sclerosis (MS). The finding, published in the journal Scientific Reports, implies that targeting microglia could be a promising strategy to improve cognition in MS. While cognitive…

A large-scale online survey, funded by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society  and developed by researchers, is investigating how multiple sclerosis (MS) patients perceive and evaluate the risks and benefits of available therapies. Investigators encourage MS patients to participate in the survey, titled “Multiple Sclerosis Risk Tolerance,” which can be…

People newly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) tend to also suffer from other chronic health problems, particularly depression, according to a Canadian study, that also emphasizes the importance of investigating whether the safety of MS treatments differs for these patients. “These findings are interesting for several reasons,” the study’s author,…

AB Science recently reported the publication of four peer-reviewed and independent research papers that add to the growing recognition of masitinib, the company’s lead compound, as a promising treatment for neurological and neurodegenerative diseases, including progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs)…

The Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC), a pre-eminent organization of multiple sclerosis (MS) healthcare providers, will hold its 30th Annual Meeting on June 1–4, 2016, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. The CMSC Annual Meeting is the most comprehensive multidisciplinary MS conference…

A new assessment by a European regulatory agency failed to find fingolimod of added benefit to comparator therapies for people with highly active relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) who have failed to respond to treatment with at least one other disease-modifying drug. Fingolimod (Gilenya), developed as a therapy for multiple sclerosis, has undergone three early benefit assessments since its…

Andrea Perry Kaiser is a woman on a mission. The Long Beach, New York, resident is soon to undergo hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for her multiple sclerosis (MS). Kaiser contacted Multiple Sclerosis News Today to chronicle her journey, both before and following the treatment. She received a primary progressive multiple sclerosis…

Researchers found that nerve cell connections in the brain, called synapses, were damaged in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS) through a process wholly unrelated to myelin destruction. As the damaged mice synapses studied were in regions crucial for memory processing, finding ways of protecting these neurons would be a crucial step toward developing a…

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, working in the fruit fly model, identified an organic cation transporter, CarT (carcinine transporter), that is crucial to the recycling of histamine in the brain and the maintenance of healthy vision. Histamine is a neurotransmitter involved in chronic inflammation and pathogenesis in multiple…

A PhRMA report, titled “A Decade of Innovation in Chronic Diseases,” examined advances made in the treatment of several chronic health conditions, including multiple sclerosis (MS), over the past 10 years that have helped patients to avoid disease complications and hospitalizations, and improve their quality of life.

Researchers, working on an animal model and human cells, discovered a mechanism to halt autoimmune disease damage and developed of a novel class of drugs that triggers the mechanism, and which has the potential to treat autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS) without impairing the normal and necessary activities of the…

A researcher has identified two drugs that may be used to reverse peripheral nerve damage, also referred to as peripheral neuropathy, resulting from diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS) and diabetes, the use of chemotherapy in the treatment of some cancers, or traumatic injuries. The researcher, Sandra Rieger, PhD, is an assistant professor…

Biogen is launching an initiative developed with the assistance of clinical experts — the 1MSg campaign — to educate and encourage multiple sclerosis (MS) patients to make disease management decisions that are well-informed and based on the latest scientific research. The campaign’s motto is “Take control, known your choices,” and one of its main…

Celgene Corporation announced the results from an extension study of the RADIANCE Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating ozanimod in patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS). The results were also presented at the recent Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum 2016 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ozanimod is a small…

In an innovative research project funded by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Dr. Anne Astier from the University of Edinburgh, U.K., and her team will use zebrafish to track the CD46 protein and determine where and how it affects the movement of immune cells into the brain, a process believed to influence…

Dr. Andrew Goodman of the University of Rochester discussed the latest research and perspectives on stem cell strategies for people with multiple sclerosis (MS), saying in a presentation at the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum 2016 that such therapies, while promising, are not yet ready for widespread clinical use. New therapies…

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore presented key findings today, Feb. 19, concerning the presence of contrast-enhancing lesions in later stages in the relapsing-remitting experimental autoimmune encephalitis (EAE) model. The presentation was made at the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum 2016, which is ongoing through…

Dr. Timothy Coetzee from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society will present an overview of the objectives and achievements of the International Progressive MS Alliance (PMSA), an organization dedicated to facilitating and funding research on progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), a form of MS especially lacking effective therapeutic options. Coetzee…

At the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum 2016, being held from Feb. 18–20 in New Orleans, LA, researchers have gathered to discuss “Progressive MS: Bench to Bedside and Back,” the meeting’s theme. Secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) is one of four types of MS, and is…

Brian M. Sandroff from the Kessler Foundation and Robert W. Mot with the University of Illinois will present the results of a study on the effects of exercise in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) today, Feb.18, at the Americas Committee for the Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS)…

The Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum 2016 starts today, Feb. 18, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and runs through Saturday, Feb. 20. The opening day’s Session 1, titled “Emerging Concepts in MS,” places special focus on cutting-edge studies on the pathogenic mechanisms in multiple sclerosis (MS), new measures of…

Genentech recently announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted its investigational medicine ocrelizumab, a potential treatment for primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS), Breakthrough Therapy Designation based on positive Phase 3 clinical trial results showing that ocrelizumab significantly reduced disability progression and other disease activity markers compared to placebo. The FDA designation is…

The European Medicines Agency Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC), responsible for assessing and monitoring safety issues for human medicines, completed a review on the risk for progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients treated with the medicine Tysabri (natalizumab). The issued guidelines have the objective of minimizing patients’ risk.

A new study underscores the variability of immune responses in different people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and suggests this heterogenity affects responses to the commonly prescribed MS medication interferon-β, but blood biomarkers may exist that can help to determine those most likely to benefit from such treatment. The study, “Cytokine profiles…

The first standalone forum held by the Madison, Wisconsin-based Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) gets underway  Thursday, Feb. 18, and runs through Feb. 20 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The forum, “Progressive MS: From Bench to Bedside and Back,” is at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans at…

A new campaign called “End our pain” is asking people to sign a petition calling on the U.K. to allow all patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) there to have access to medical cannabis as a treatment for MS symptoms, in keeping with countries  such as Canada and Germany, and a number…

The Co-Pay Relief program offered through the Patient Advocate Foundation has added a new financial assistance fund to its collection of resources for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The new fund is now available to financially eligible MS patients with health insurance coverage to support the costs of necessary treatment medicines. “Our case management department has been…

RedHill Biopharma, Ltd., an Israeli biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of oral-administered small-molecule medicines for the treatment of inflammatory and gastrointestinal diseases, recently announced it has received a Notice of Allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a new patent covering its…