The Anne Rowling regenerative neurology clinic, which will be based at the University of Edinburgh, will carry out research into a range of degenerative neurological conditions and diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntingdon’s and motor neurone disease.

View full post here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/31/jk-rowling-donation-multiple-sclerosis?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

View full post here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=the-connection-between-multiple-scl-10-07-03

Traditional treatments didn’t slow her decline. Then, back fatigue forced her to use a wheelchair.

”I was very depressed,” Wahls said. “It was clear that I was getting progressively weaker, I ultimately would’ve been bed-ridden.”

View full post here: http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/97010634.html

“Many people with MS struggle with learning and memory problems. This study shows that a mentally active lifestyle might reduce the harmful effects of brain damage on learning and memory. That is, learning and memory ability remained quite good in people with enriching lifestyles, even if they had a lot of brain damage (brain atrophy on brain scans).

View full post here: http://sify.com/news/mental-activity-can-protect-memory-of-patients-with-multiple-sclerosis-news-international-kgppOfchjec.html

October 15, 2009, 6:36 AM

Buffalo physicians announced Wednesday that they have started a large study that could overturn thinking about the generally accepted cause for multiple sclerosis.

MS is believed to stem from an abnormal response of the body’s immune system directed against the fatty sheath that surrounds nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord.

But no one knows for sure, and recent research suggests an altogether different explanation for the disabling disease — narrowing of the primary veins outside the skull, a condition called chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI.

The narrowing restricts the normal outflow of blood from the brain, causing alterations in the blood flow patterns within the brain that eventually cause injury to brain tissue and degeneration of neurons, the researchers said.

“If we can prove our hypothesis — that cerebrospinal venous insufficiency is the underlying cause of MS — it is going to change the face of how we understand MS,” said Dr. Robert Zivadinov, director of the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center at Kaleida Health’s Buffalo General Hospital.

Zivadinov, principal investigator in the study, is also a University at Buffalo associate professor of neurology.

Such a finding may allow doctors to identify individuals born with the abnormalities before they develop MS symptoms, treat the problem and perhaps even prevent it.

About 400,000 Americans suffer from MS, and because no cure exists, there is intense interest in new insights and potential treatments. Zivadinov urged caution, saying the work remains very preliminary.

A 2009 study by an Italian researcher, Dr. Paolo Zamboni, of 65 people with MS and 235 people with no or other neurological disorders found a strong relationship between MS and signs of abnormal blood drainage in veins. Zivadinov took part in small follow-up studies.

The researchers here now plan a larger, more rigorously designed trial that will involve 1,600 adults and 100 children and include a look at other factors involved in the disease.

It could be that CCSVI interacts with environmental, genetic or infectious triggers to initiate an abnormal immune response and the degeneration of nerve tissue, Zivadinov said.

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, in a recent statement, offered a cautious response to the new study, saying that many questions remain about how and when the obstruction of veins might play a role in damage to the nervous system seen in MS.

“At the present time,” the organization said, “there is insufficient evidence to suggest that this phenomenon is the cause of MS.”

View full post here: http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/buffaloerie/story/828345.html?imw=Y

Moreover, IFN-beta and other available treatments must be given parenterally and have a variety of adverse effects. Certain naturally occurring flavonoids, such as luteolin, have anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, including inhibition of activated peripheral blood leukocytes from MS patients.

Luteolin also inhibits mast cells, as well as mast cell-dependent T cell activation, recently implicated in MS pathogenesis. Moreover, luteolin and structurally similar flavonoids can inhibit experimental allergic allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of MS in rodents.

An appropriate luteolin formulation that permits sufficient absorption and reduces its metabolism could be a useful adjuvant to IFN-beta for MS therapy.

Author: Theoharis Theoharides
Credits/Source: Journal of Neuroinflammation 2009, 6:29

View full post here: http://7thspace.com/headlines/322720/luteolin_as_a_therapeutic_option_for_multiple_sclerosis.html

It’s estimated that at least 65% of Multiple Sclerosis patients endure cognition problems on a day to day basis. Challenges with multi-tasking, memory attention, executive functioning, information processing, learning, and visuospatial abilities are common and can negatively impact quality of life and stress levels.

The BCM doctors set out to understand whether using computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation (CACR) would help patients with mild to moderate cognitive impairment. After 18 weeks of using computer assisted rehabilitation, the twelve individuals enrolled in the trial, showed improvement between 19-38 percentile points in the various cognitive areas. That’s exciting news when you are struggling to learn a new task, follow a recipe, remember your own family’s names, or how to do simple math in your head.

Finding sites that offer free brain fitness exercises online isn’t too difficult. So, go ahead and start exercising your brain today. You have everything to gain.

View full article here: http://www.examiner.com/x-22318-Houston-Multiple-Sclerosis-Examiner~y2009m8d31-Increasing-cognition-by-playing-games

Most doctors and experts recommend that anyone with multiple sclerosis (MS) gets a seasonal flu shot. Influenza (the “flu”) is usually accompanied by high fevers and high fevers and infections can lead to relapses and/or increased symptoms and disability.

I’m sorry to say, however, that those of us with MS should NOT get their flu vaccine in the form of FluMist, the nasal flu vaccine spray. FluMist is a live-virus vaccine, which uses an attenuated form of the flu virus – in fact, the generic name of FluMist is LAIV (Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine). People with MS that are on immunosuppressants, such as corticosteroids (Solu-Medrol) or Tysabri, or any of the immunoglobulin preparations (such as IVIG), are especially susceptible to developing influenza from FluMist. However, it is recommended that no one with MS (regardless of which medications they are on) gets FluMist, just to be sure. In fact, if you want to be extra cautious, it may be wise to ensure that the people in your family receive the shot, rather than FluMist, although some docs will say this is probably an unnecessary precaution.

For the sake of clarity, the “flu shot” is made of inactivated, or killed, virus, so poses no danger of infection (despite wild claims from many people that the shot “gave them the flu”).

Oh, and for anyone interested (I was): No, the seasonal flu shot does NOT protect against HINI (otherwise known as Swine Flu) and neither does FluMist, for that matter. At this point, it looks like the HINI vaccines will all be inactivated virus vaccines, therefore safe for people with MS. Whether the HINI is specifically recommended for people with MS has not been specifically mentioned, as far as I know. I will keep you posted on this.

View entire post here: http://ms.about.com/b/2009/09/01/no-flumist-for-people-with-multiple-sclerosis.htm

Washington, Sept 1 : Unlike cigarettes, Swedish snuff doesn’t increase a person’s risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS), finds a new study.

“While tobacco cigarettes increased a person”s risk of developing MS, our research found that using Swedish snuff was not associated with an elevated risk for MS,” said study author Dr Anna Hedstrom, of the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.

“These results could mean that nicotine is not the substance responsible for the increased risk of MS among smokers,” she added.

During the study, the researchers examined 902 people diagnosed with MS and 1,855 people without MS in Sweden between the ages of 16 and 70.

It showed that in women who smoked, the risk for developing MS was nearly one and a half times higher than in women who did not smoke.

In men, the risk was nearly two times higher in those who smoked compared to those who did not smoke.

This was the case even in people who only smoked moderately.

However, those who used Swedish snuff for more than 15 years were 70 percent less likely to develop MS than those who had never used any type of tobacco.

There was no significant effect of snuff-taking for less than 15 years, a period during which other adverse consequences of taking snuff, including head-and-neck cancer, would become evident.

“Taking snuff, however, may have other harmful effects, and our findings should not be interpreted to mean that Swedish snuff is recommended to prevent disease,” said Hedstrom.

“More research is needed to better understand the mechanisms behind the findings.

“Theories are that smoking may raise the risk of MS by increasing the frequency and persistence of respiratory infections, or by causing autoimmune reactions in genetically susceptible people,” she added.

The study appears in journal Neurologyr, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. (ANI)

View full article here: http://www.topnews.in/swedish-snuff-doesn-t-increase-multiple-sclerosis-risk-2208920

Research published in the Aug. 18, 2009, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, showed that “ever-smokers” had more brain lesions and greater loss of brain volume, as well as higher scores on the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), than MS patients who had no history of smoking.

The EDSS score is an average number derived from measures of various functions of the central nervous system. It is based on a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 representing greatest disability. Nonsmokers recorded an average EDSS score of 2.5, compared to 3.0 for ever-smokers.

“Cigarette smoking is one of the most compelling environmental risk factors linked to the development and worsening of MS,” said Robert Zivadinov, M.D., Ph.D., UB professor of neurology, director of the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center (BNAC) where the research was conducted and first author on the study.

“The biological basis of the potential link between smoking and MS has not yet been fully elucidated,” Zivadinov said. “In addition to nicotine, cigarette smoke contains hundreds of potentially toxic components, including tar, carbon monoxide and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

“In MS patients, smoking was associated with higher increased lesion burden and greater brain atrophy. Our results indicate that a wide range of quantitative brain MRI markers are affected by smoking in MS patients.”

The study involved 368 consecutive patients who were seen at the Baird Multiple Sclerosis Center of the Jacobs Neurological Institute (JNI), UB’s Department of Neurology, UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Within the study cohort, 128 had a history of smoking: 96 were active smokers who had smoked more than 10 cigarettes-per-day in the three months prior to the study start and 32 were former smokers who had smoked cumulatively for at least six months sometime in the past. The remaining 240 participants were lifelong nonsmokers.

Nearly 80 percent in both groups were female, and nearly 75 percent were diagnosed with progressive MS, characterized by a steadily increasing disability.

All participants were evaluated by a clinician, were rated by disability using the EDSS scale and underwent a variety of high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans conducted by MRI analysts who were blinded to the patient’s clinical status and characteristics.

Results showed that smokers with MS had a greater breakdown of the blood-brain barrier, had nearly 17 percent more brain lesions — patches of inflammation in the sheath surrounding the nerve fibers that impair their function — than nonsmokers with MS, and also had less brain volume. Smoking also was associated with increased physical disability, as measured by the EDSS score.

Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, M.D., director of the Baird MS Center, UB associate professor of neurology and a principal co-author on the study, said: “The findings underscore the detrimental effect of smoking, providing a link between smoking and a more severe brain injury in MS patients.

“Increased antismoking education in schools and more targeted smoking cessation programs for patients with MS should be encouraged further and supported.”

Murali Ramanathan, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences in the UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, is senior author on the study. Additional authors, all from UB, are Komal Hashmi, M.D., Nadir Abdelrahman, M.D., Milena Stosic, M.D., Michael G. Dwyer, Sara Hussein and Jackie Durfee.

View entire post here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090817190636.htm

Racing to beat Novartis to the world’s biggest drug markets with a new oral therapy for multiple sclerosis, Merck KGaA has filed for regulatory approval of cladribine in Europe and plans to file in the U.S. later this quarter.

The application brings Merck ”closer to the possibility of providing an oral short-course treatment to patients with multiple sclerosis,” Executive Vice President Roberto Gradnik said in a statement. Last spring researchers reported that cladribine cut the risk of relapse in half, though some patients also experienced a depletion of white blood cells needed to protect them from infections. The therapy works by blunting the human immune system.

Analysts say that cladribine is likely to achieve blockbuster status, with a billion dollars in annual sales. “A market entry in Europe beginning of 2010 seems feasible, as should be the case for the U.S.,” wrote analysts for DZ Bank AG.

View full article here: http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/merck-kgaa-races-regulators-oral-ms-drug/2009-07-23?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss&cmp-id=OTC-RSS-FB0

Methods: In the current study our objective was to determine if subsets of genes can predict the time to the next acute relapse in patients with MS. Data-mining and predictive modeling tools were utilized to analyze a gene-expression dataset of 94 non-treated patients; 62 patients with definite MS and 32 patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS).

The dataset included the expression levels of 10,594 genes and annotated sequences corresponding to 22,215 gene-transcripts that appear in the microarray.

Results: We designed a two stage predictor. The first stage predictor was based on the expression level of 10 genes, and predicted the time to next relapse with a resolution of 500 days (error rate 0.079, p<0.001).

If the predicted relapse was to occur in less than 500 days, a second stage predictor based on an additional different set of 9 genes was used to give a more accurate estimation of the time till the next relapse (in resolution of 50 days). The error rate of the second stage predictor was 2.3 fold lower than the error rate of random predictions (error rate = 0.35, p<0.001).

The predictors were further evaluated and found effective both for untreated MS patients and for MS patients that subsequently received immunomodulatory treatments after the initial testing (the error rate of the first level predictor was <0.18 with p<0.001 for all the patient groups).

Conclusions: We conclude that gene expression analysis is a valuable tool that can be used in clinical practice to predict future MS disease activity. Similar approach can be also useful for dealing with other autoimmune diseases that characterized by relapsing-remitting nature.

Author: Michael GurevichTamir TullerUdi RubinsteinRotem Or-BachAnat Achiron
Credits/Source: BMC Medical Genomics 2009, 2:46

View full article here: http://7thspace.com/headlines/315028/prediction_of_acute_multiple_sclerosis_relapses_by_transcription_levels_of_peripheral_blood_cells.html

The first large-scale “CombiRX” clinical trial testing the combined use of FDA-approved interferon beta-1a (Avonex®) and glatiramer acetate (Copaxone®) to treat relapsing-remitting MS has just received a $19-million renewal grant from the National Institutes of Health. This is the largest MS trial ever supported by the NIH, with a cumulative investment of more than $44 million. The long-term trial is led by principal investigator Fred Lublin, MD, (Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Multiple Sclerosis Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY).

The study is now fully enrolled, with more than 1,000 participants at 67 medical centers across the United States and Canada. Dr. Lublin is a member of the National Board of Directors of the National MS Society and the Society’s National Clinical Advisory Board and the New York City Chapter Clinical Advisory Committee.

Combination therapy is being compared to the use of either agent alone for 36 months. All participants are receiving at least one active medication and there is not a placebo-only treatment arm. Each of these treatments is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of relapsing MS. A previous, smaller pilot trial of the combination therapy suggested it was safe and warranted further study.

An important ancillary study to this trial, the NIH-sponsored biomarker project, is examining genetic and other biological markers at baseline and at a minimum of one additional point during the study. The hope is that these biological markers will provide a means for identifying, in the future, those patients with more aggressive disease as well as those who respond or fail to respond to therapy. Such markers would have considerable value in the management of MS.

Read more about this study in its listing on clinicaltrials.gov.

Source
MS Society

View full article here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/158396.php

The MS Technology Collaborative has created a new way for people living with multiple sclerosis (MS) to exercise their brain power. The Collaborative, an alliance of Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Microsoft, and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, today announced the launch of MyBrainGames, a free suite of online games filled with cognitive challenges for the MS community.

Approximately 50 percent of people living with MS develop cognitive challenges, often in the areas of processing speed, working memory and complex attention. These challenges can involve difficulty in learning and remembering information; focusing, maintaining and shifting attention; and organizing, planning and problem-solving.

MyBrainGames, available for free at MyMSMyWay.com, are the first online games designed specifically for people with MS under the direction of a team of leading healthcare professionals specializing in MS and cognition, as well as members of the MS community. The games provide a series of fun and interactive cognitive challenges for the MS community.

“Many times our patients are doing well physically but they may still struggle with cognitive ability,” said Dr. Stephen Kirzinger, director of the Multiple Sclerosis Program at the University of Louisville and one of the healthcare professionals who oversaw development of the game. “This game presents the first step in assessing whether games can help counter the cognitive challenges of MS.”

The games challenge the player’s processing speed, working memory, attention, and task switching ability. Each game is available at varying levels of difficulty and players can even create customized levels to best suit their individual abilities. All scores can be saved, allowing users to track their performance over time.

Because people with MS experience a range of physical limitations in addition to cognitive challenges, MyBrainGames was also developed with technical modifications to ensure that the games are accessible to the MS community. The game’s “Accessibility Toolbar” offers the option for color inversion, changes in contrast, and bold and enlarged game text. To account for individuals with limited dexterity, minimal mouse and keyboard movement is required, with most of the game played using only two keyboard keys.

MyBrainGames is the latest deliverable of the Collaborative’s nearly three-year partnership, which began with their 2007 survey, “Staying Connected: An Investigative Survey of How Technology Affects People Living with MS.” Results from this survey indicated that people living with MS were not only highly reliant upon computers and the internet, but also frequent gamers, with 36% of respondents reporting the use of online games.

In response to the survey results, the Collaborative launched http://www.MyMSMyWay.com, an online portal that features information and resources on technology, including the Snapshot tool, an interactive quiz that provides customized technology solutions based on each individual’s particular needs and challenges. The site is now also home to the Collaborative’s latest addition, MyBrainGames.

“We have seen through our work over the past few years the tremendous impact that technology can have on a person’s journey with MS,” said Dr. Nicholas LaRocca, Vice President of health care delivery and policy research at the National MS Society. “With the launch of MyBrainGames, we’re pleased to be able to present a unique piece of technology that we hope will have a similar impact.”

The Collaborative is currently working with leading healthcare professionals and game developers to secure a research grant to evaluate the impact of MyBrainGames on cognitive function.

To access MyBrainGames and the multitude of resources offered by the Collaborative, please visit http://www.MyMSMyWay.com.

View entire post here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/157707.php