Prof G will ocrelizumab and rituximab prevent SPMS? Just back from the COMBAT-MS stakeholders meeting in Pasadena with the Kaiser (Kaiser Foundation Research Institute) and Swedish (Karolinska Institute) trial teams, PCORI (Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute) and many brave an wonderful people with MS and their families. The COMBAT-MS study (NCT03193866) is recruiting well and is on...
Yes, why can’t we use anti-CD20 therapies as an immune constitution therapy (IRT) or at least adapt the dose based on B-cell reconstitution kinetics? And if we can’t beat the Swedes why can’t we join them? ADIOS = ADaptIve Ocrelizumab dosing Study There is mounting evidence from NMO and rheumatology that anti-CD20 therapies can be used as either a maintenance therapy or an immune...
Why can’t we use anti-CD20 therapies as immune constitution therapies? For some years we have been promoting our Barts-MS Essential DMT list to treat people with MS (pwMS) in resource-poor environments. One of the big guns on our list has been rituximab (anti-CD20). One of the problems is that rituximab at a dose of 1g every 6 months is still too expensive to accessible for the vast...
Should your vaccine status be checked and updated before you start treatment? As part of our programme to derisk disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) for pwMS in our service, we are reviewing our vaccination policy. One issue that has emerged is the possible need to boost immunity to certain types of bacteria that are known to pose a risk in patients on long-term immunosuppression, in particular B...
Is targeting the B-cell sufficient to get on top of MS or do we need something extra? I spoke at the MS Nurses’ MS@TheLimits2019 meeting at the Royal College of Physicians yesterday. My brief was to cover the role of B-cells in the pathogenesis of MS and to review the converging evidence that supports B-cells being the central player in the pathogenesis of MS. It is clear that depleting B...