This the first of our Barts-MS non-personalised, more factual, blog posts. We, Barts-MS, hope you will find this format more agreeable. Happiness is associated with better health outcomes, which may apply to people living with MS and their families. More research needs to be done in this area before any definitive statements can be made in relation to applying happiness therapy as part of the...
Multiple sclerosis: effect of beta interferon treatment on survival.Kingwell E, Leray E, Zhu F, Petkau J, Edan G, Oger J, Tremlett H. Brain. 2019 Mar 18. pii: awz055. doi: 10.1093/brain/awz055. [Epub ahead of print Worldwide, the beta interferons remain the most commonly prescribed disease-modifying drugs for multiple sclerosis. However, it is unclear if they alter survival. We investigated...
Can studying the pathology of MS and animal models of MS teach us about the cell types driving MS? Professor Lassmann is the doyen of multiple sclerosis pathology. He makes two very important points in this review. EAE the experimental model of MS is not MS. Interestingly, most EAE models are driven by CD4+ T-cells, which is very relevant to the second point he makes. Does this mean we should not...
If you are a Barts-MS patient, make sure you head to Whitechapel for a new patient-led group – Coffee and a Chat. Bonnie and Elizabeth have set up this friendly support network for all patients of Barts-MS. Come along to the Nucleus cafe in the Blizard building in Whitechapel (E1 2AT) from 10am – 12pm on the first Friday of each month through 2019. The next one is Friday 5th April. Put it into...
Can we prevent alemtuzumab-associated listeriosis? The following is a published case report of someone with MS developing listeriosis congruent with their second course of alemtuzumab treatment. It is clear this patient was not taking her diatary advice very seriously. We have a potential solution for this problem. Holmøy et al. Listeria monocytogenes infection associated with alemtuzumab – a...
Effect of cladribine tablets on lymphocyte reduction and repopulation dynamics in patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis.Comi G, Cook S, Giovannoni G, Rieckmann P, Sørensen PS, Vermersch P, Galazka A, Nolting A, Hicking C, Dangond F. Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2019 Apr;29:168-174. BACKGROUND: Immune reconstitution therapies (IRT) for patients with multiple sclerosis are used for short...
This the first of our Barts-MS non-personalised, more factual, blog posts. We, Barts-MS, hope you will find this format more agreeable. Happiness is associated with better health outcomes, which may apply to people living with MS and their families. More research needs to be done in this area before any definitive statements can be made in relation to applying happiness therapy as part of the...
There is mounting evidence that the brain blood supply is affected in MS. Perfusion MRI studies have found that blood flow is globally impaired in the normal appearing brain of both relapsing and progressive forms of MS. Interestingly, there appears to be an association between this and cognitive (memory and intelligence) dysfunction in MS. In animal models, chronic hypoperfusion of the brain...
Background: Pathologic changes in cortical gray matter (GM) and leptomeninges contribute to disability worsening in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), but there is little evidence whether disease-modifying treatments can slow down cortical pathology in MS. Objectives: To investigate the effect of teriflunomide (TFM) and dimethyl fumarate (DMF) in reducing cortical...
One of the beauties of getting older without Alzheimers is that you still have a memory. So a new study from the lab of Prof Franklinstein finds another new target to get repair. Transforming growth factor-beta renders ageing microglia inhibitory to oligodendrocyte generation by CNS progenitors.Baror R, Neumann B, Segel M, Chalut KJ, Fancy SPJ, Schafer DP, Franklin RJM. Glia. 2019 Mar 12. doi: 10...
This post has been moved to Medium. From now on Prof G will do all personal postings on Medium. He will continue to post on this platform but will be limiting his posts on the Barts-MS blog to factual content, no random personal musings and no off-beat MS topics.