ArchiveOctober 2017

ECTRIMS/ACTRIMS 2017 in Paris How would I describe this year’s ECTRIMS/ACTRIMS? With 10,000 participants and more than 2000 abstracts this year, it is undoubtedly one of the worlds largest neurology/science conferences. On Twitter, alone @ECTRIMS reached a total audience of 2.9 million, with 6.2 million impressions worldwide (stats from @ECTRIMS). Walking along the halls of Le Palais des...

Circumstantial evidence has suggested an association between diet and MS, but hard evidence proving a causal link has been lacking.  A new multicentre, prospective, longitudinal cohort study from the USA tried to crack this problem. They recruited children with MS from 11 centres.  People were included if they met the following criteria:           ‘high...

This was posted in comments I have added the bits in purple AnonymousSunday, October 22, 2017 3:07:00 pm Clonal Evolution of Autoreactive Germinal Centres  (24 August 2017 )(Germinal Centres (GC) = area in lymph glands where memory cells and plasma cells which make antibody are made.) Highlights •Single autoreactive B cell clone drives expansion of B cells in germinal centers  •...

It is time to eat humble pie Earlier in the year I expressed concern about the use of Ibudilast in MS.  The wait is over and I was possibly wrong,  It was shown that Ibudilast reduced brain volume loss by 48%. in progressive MS, so supporting the past trial in MS. As we know this agent does not stop relapses and so now the age of progressive MS really changes. Probably as ProfG says...

This afternoon Mouse Doctor and Neuro Doc Gnanapavan broadcast live from the MS Paris ECTRIMS ACTRIMS conference for a one hour Google Hangout. This was your opportunity to listen to the summary of what they’ve seen but also respond to questions posted by readers of this blog. You can watch a recorded video of the event here:  Image above of the broadcast team, supported by Dr M&M...

Join us today for the Burning Debate at ECTRIMS The aim of the Burning Debate is to get two top researchers to discuss a burning topic from the field of MS Research. This year the topic is: Rumble in the Jungle: B cells vs. T cells. Our two speakers will argue over whether MS is a T-cell mediated disease and if B-cells are therefore less important.  The debate will take place...

The Programme (UK)/Program (US) is online (CLICK HERE) The abstracts are now live Come and see us at the Google Hangout 15.45-16.45 Central European Summer Time = GMT + 2 h) with NDG and ProfB your hosts to answer your questions and to report on what’s “Hot” and What’s “Not”….OK, they won’t waste their time, and your time, with the...

The Barts MS team will go to ECTRIMS this week with a spring in our step. On Saturday night, we attended the Zenith Global Healthcare awards and won a Team Recognition award. Not only this, but Professor Giovannoni was awarded with a Lifetime achievement award.  We were nominated by Trishna Bharadia, a (superstar) patient ambassador that we’ve known and worked with for a number of years...

Are you on natalizumab? This paper will be of interest to you.  J Neurol. 2017 Oct 16. doi: 10.1007/s00415-017-8643-4. [Epub ahead of print] Natalizumab therapy is associated with changes in serum JC virus antibody indices over time. Peters J, Williamson E. To examine changes in anti-JC Virus (JCV) index measurements over time in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients to better understand this...

You may have seen this BBC news article today about two pwMS. One of which had a well-planned trip to Switzerland to end his life. After meeting a local woman with MS he appears to have a new outlook and has postponed his trip to Switzerland indefinitely. (Image is a screen shot of the article on the BBC website) The really interesting thing here is that the main way in which the woman has...