First of the year. Have a question. This is the place for you
First of the year. Have a question. This is the place for you
When I was a scientific ameoba in MS research it was implied that MS is a mobility/EDSS problem. But when I got to meet people with MS, I could tell there are cognitive problems. Mental health issues are parts of the, and consequence of the, problem and can lead to life-changing behavioural changes. Some treatments are available (chemical and non-chemical) and it is important that you can discuss...
No this is not about Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle or Marcelo’s Leeds but about a trial in new onset multiple sclerosis. If you know of someone who has neurological symptoms for the first time such as optic neuritis, when you have a visual attack, or stroke like-symptoms, please tell them, their doctors and AE specialists about ATTACK-MS. This is a trial from ProfK and aims to start people...
Owens B. Largest-ever study of journal editors highlights ‘self-publication’.. Nature. 2023 Jan 19. doi: 10.1038/d41586-023-00129-7. Analysis shows that some researchers publish a considerable proportion of their own work in journals they edit.The study found that one-quarter of all editors published at least 10% of their papers in journals that they edit. For some, the rates were...
We often talk a lot about starting treatments in MS, but what about stopping them? Your age or to be more specific old age sits as the main consideration for stopping most treatments as a whole, particularly when there is no benefit to be had from the treatment or the risk of a serious side effect outweighs the benefit gained. One way to side step this issue is to use induction treatments...
We have all heard the view that EBV is part of the cause and MS, but one can argue, indeed I have, that there is nothing special about MS. EBV does not simply just cause MS, it is part of the cause of autoimmuity of a number of conditions. If true then simply targeting MS may not be the best way of showing this. So what is the proof that EBV just causes MS? We all know some stuff…..but it...
He is a another COVID paper that says exactly what we know from other studies, but it reminds me to plug our paper on the sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor modulators Baker D, Forte E, Pryce G, Kang AS, James LK, Giovannoni G, Schmierer K. The impact of sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor modulators on COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2022; 69:104425. doi: 10.1016/j.msard...
A while ago we looked at B cell growth factors that were targeted and failed to inhibit MS. Anti-B cell activating factor targets (BAFF) blocks the action on targets 3 receptors, TACI binds to and blocks APRIL and BAFF and these inhibit naive B cells and some antibody producing plasma cells but do not inhibit memory cells and we have suggested that memory cells are important in MS, Baker D, Pryce...
I, Iraj Arfat a student at QMUL, would like to thank everyone who read and interacted with my previous blog post. The responses have been very helpful in giving an insight into what professionals and patients think about prodromal multiple sclerosis (MS). Survey Results: The survey results were very interesting. There was a fairly even split about whether people had heard about prodromal MS, but...
We have made the suggestion that vaccine response relates to the B cell numbers but this is related to the presence of depleting antibody so you could measure that instead, This is a study with ocrelizumab but this conclusion has been seen before with rituximab Toorop AA, Hogenboom L, Bloem K, Kocyigit M, Commandeur NWM, Wijnants A, Lissenberg-Witte BI, Strijbis EMM, Uitdehaag BMJ, Rispens T...
In Sweden I undertand that the neurologists had the opportunity to get the best possible result at the best cost and they didnt have to use the EMA approved agents, so that it is easier to treat more people. In Rituxiland they use a lot of rituximab which is an off label CD20-depleting drug that is similar to some of the approved drugs used in MS. In the UK rituximab is not used as much for MS...