The latest Barts-MS journal club describes and discusses the Whack-A-Mole strategy dealing with secondary autoimmunity post-alemtuzumab treatment. It is based on the paper below. Meltzer et al. Mitigating alemtuzumab-associated autoimmunity in MS: A “whack-a-mole” B-cell depletion strategy. Neurol Neuroimmunol Neuroinflamm. 2020 Aug 7;7(6):e868. doi: 10.1212/NXI.0000000000000868...
#MSCOVID19: Has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted your MS?
Shift.ms has asked to help them promote a survey they are doing to find-out how COVID-19 has impacted your MS. If you get a chance can you please complete the survey? Thank you.
Journal Club: Early vs. Late or Low vs. High efficacy
You are welcome to watch our online journal club discussing the following paper. Anna He et al. Timing of high-efficacy therapy for multiple sclerosis: a retrospective observational cohort study. Lancet Neurol 2020 Apr;19(4):307-316.Background: High-efficacy therapies in multiple sclerosis are traditionally used after unsuccessful treatment with first-line disease modifying therapies. We...
The tortoise has finally arrived
The FDA has just approved ofatumumab for patients with relapsing MS. See Novartis’ press release below. Ofatumumab delivers powerful efficacy with a favorable safety profile and can be self-administered at home, addressing significant unmet needs for people living with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (RMS)1 Approval based on two Phase III ASCLEPIOS studies demonstrating significant...
How to control temperature-sensitivity of nerve function
You may know that symptoms can get worse when you are too hot and this is because temperature can affect how nerves function. We have been looking into the reasons behind this and can see a way to potentientially reduce this Mark Baker Mechanism of sodium ion movement in optic nerve axons and implications for MS Energy deficit in neurons and axons is part of the zeitgeist of present-day MS...
#MSCOVID19: Friday fatigue
Anybody else tired or suffering from coronavirus fatigue or burnout?
These data from Google Trends suggest it is a global trend.
CoI: none in relation to this post
Guestpost: Neurofilaments vs. ‘The straight-line instinct’!
Biography I am new to the blog and Barts-MS. I am Dr. Ide Smets and I am an ECTRIMS clinical fellow working in the Barts-MS team. My country of origin is Belgium which is famous for having six governments, for having a national dish that is claimed by another country (French Fries) and for going wild about cyclocross (bring it on Chris Froome ;-)). In 2018, I obtained my PhD in biomedical...
Antibody Tests
Hello it is Triska again. ProfB has asked me to talk about the anti-body tests that are out there. These are currently relevant to how people are being tested to see if they have had a COVID-19 infection, but the principles are the anti-drug antibody tests that we have been doing in the Lab Lateral flow test A lateral flow immunoassay, also referred to as a rapid diagnostic test is a simple to...
Detecting #MSCOVID19 infection. SPIN and SNOUT
Hello my name is Triska. I am working with DrAngry and ProfB and was due to do my student Lab project on anti-drug antibodies in MS. I have been told that the subject matter is top secret. However, things have changed and I have been doing a COVID-19 related study. You may know that you can detect the virus is you are infected. However, after you have been infected, you will make an anti-COVID-19...
Guest post: social distancing
Dear everyone. As an infectious disease epidemiologist, at this point feel morally obligated to provide some information on what we are seeing from a transmission dynamic perspective and how they apply to the social distancing measures. Like any good scientist I have noticed two things that are either not articulated or not present in the “literature” of social media. Specifically, I...