Back in 2015 there was a great need to prognosticate in MS, predict high risk subjects from low risk, and select appropriate treatments based on disease activity in MS. We envisaged back then that the neurofilament test (a neuronal protein that is released during damage) would be a robust marker for risk-stratification in MS, and introduced into our clinical practice at Barts, instead of it being...
HSCT gets rid of T cells
This is open access so for those interested, you can have a read. It says efficacy of HSCT is associated with lost of T cells from the CNS. I guess we could have guessed that this would happen, and one would suspect it should happen with any treatment that works. The study also serves to show that most people don’t give a monkey’s about B cells. Mention only T cells and there is no...
Is aging the problem to the woes of animal experimentation and lack of clinical translation?
There has been a failure to translate ides from animals into human benefit. EAEers either do not care about this, which is one central problem, or sometimes people scratch their heads and try and come up with reasons for this failure. In this study it is suggested that aging is not accomodated in the thought process. This is totally accepted and indeed an aged mouse for example does not handle an...
Dr Ruth. Reports of her Studies
Dr.Ruth hasn’t got the log-in details of the new blog, so she asked me to post this. Dr.Ruth says As some of you may know one of the projects that we have been working on has been a vitamin D study in collaboration with the UK MS Register, called the ‘Vitamin D in people with MS’ study. We want to thank all of the participants who took part in this – those who filled out questionnaires, or...
Happy Crimbo
What are you doing reading the blog today, you should be tucking into your Christmas pud or your favourite holiday treat.Yesterday I found a new use for a wheelchair. Meet my new friend Robbi on their new perch. Robbi is happy that he/she are not a pheasant….who are currently being blasted by shotgun-toting nobodies. If you really want to kill a pheasant it is easier to get in a car and run...
Merry Christmas
Barts-MS would like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas. The Children’s Ward of the London Hospital at Christmas. Image from The Graphic, 30 Jan 1886. Whitechapel Workhouse, Christmas 1874 Scrooge: “Bah, humbug!” Narrator: “Oh! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping...
To botox or not to botox
That is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of bladder instability,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them? –Shakespeare a’la NDG Bladder botox treatment If you suffer from bladder dysfunction, ask yourself why put with the dry mouth from Vesicare and Co., when a few injections of botox per year will do? It works...
Diagnose and Treat Early
As you know, I don’t like CRAB drugs becuase I don’t think they are effective enough for most people, Never have never will. but obviously I respect people’s choice for these agents. However if you go down this route , this is yet another example of treat early, wait too long and damage is done, meaning that it is less likely that you can get disease undercontrol. Early...
High Dose Biotin study fails to reach the mark
High dose biotin has led to many people to be chomping on loads of low dose biotin pills. But dooes it work? According to this report not very well. High-dose biotin in progressive multiple sclerosis: A prospective study of 178 patients in routine clinical practice. Couloume L, Barbin L, Leray E, Wiertlewski S, Le Page E, Kerbrat A, Ory S, Le Port D, Edan G, Laplaud DA, Michel L.Mult Scler...
Methotrexate in progressive MS
ProfG has argued that if hand-function was the major endpoint of clinical trials then you would have had an approved treatment for progressive MS over a decade ago. In this study they look at the influence of intrathecal methotrexate. Methotrexate is an anti-proliferative agent Safety of long-term intrathecal methotrexate in progressive forms of MS. Stark JW, Josephs L, Dulak D, Clague M, Sadiq...