MS Awareness Week, which just concluded, is a time for all of us to move it toward a world free of MS. Of course, that’s the year-round job description for hundreds of researchers worldwide who have dedicated their careers to finding better treatments and, ultimately, a cure.
If it seems like MS research news has been breaking fast and furious lately, you’re not imagining things. Thanks to grants from the National MS Society and other funders, the pace has indeed been quickening. Here’s a look at some developments since last MS Awareness Week:
Six oral drugs are in phase 3 clinical trials: cladribine, fingolimod, laquinimod, teriflunomide, BG00012 and minocycline. People with MS are clamoring for an oral therapy because all existing FDA-approved treatments are injectable, meaning they can be painful and, for some, frightening to take. Also in phase 3 testing are infrequent-dosing injectables, including dirucotide for secondary-progressive MS.
Fast ForwardSM, the Society’s subsidiary dedicated to speeding the development of MS drugs, began accepting grant proposals and made its first investment: in Apitope, a European company developing a therapeutic vaccine to turn off the immune attacks of MS.
A small and preliminary Northwestern University clinical trial suggested that transplanting a patient’s own blood stem cells might “reboot” the immune system, halting the progression of MS or even reversing disability slightly. More research is needed, and larger trials of this technique are underway.
Two Society-funded teams found a link between enzymes and the ability of the central nervous system to repair itself, opening another door to possible repair strategies for people with MS.
A widely suspected link between hepatitis B vaccine and MS was disproved, leading the Society to advise people not to let fear of MS prevent them from taking the potentially life-saving vaccine.
MS scientists gained access for the first time to a pool of research money controlled by the Department of Defense.
A Society-funded team at University of California-San Francisco discovered a genetic pattern that could lead to the identification of “markers” to predict MS disease activity and progression.
A Phase 3 study of a new drug called Fampridine-SR improved walking speed in people with all types of MS, and its maker has applied for FDA approval.
“To say that it’s been an exciting year in MS research would be an understatement,” said John Richert, MD, the Society’s Executive Vice President for Research and Clinical Programs. “Obviously we’re not satisfied as long as there’s MS in the world. But I’m seeing more reasons for optimism than ever.”
- Courtesy National MS Society
A New Center of Excellence in New York
Understanding why MS strikes African-Americans harder than Caucasians is just one of the ambitious goals of the new Center of Excellence on Multiple Sclerosis that New York University’s Langone Medical Center is launching following years of support from the National MS Society.
Like the Society, NYU Langone — under the direction of Dean Robert Grossman, MD, and Chief Scientific Officer Vivian S. Lee, MD — wants to prove the benefits of collaboration for translating basic science into medicines and techniques that improve lives. After securing financial pledges to create a series of cross-specialty Centers of Excellence, the medical center last autumn selected six areas of study (from more than 75 faculty proposals) to become the first Centers of Excellence.
MS was among them.
“The purpose is to pursue cures for MS by integrating various disciplines,” said Patricia O’Looney, PhD, the Society’s Vice President for Biomedical Research. “This is just so exciting, that MS is being platformed in such a way at such a large institution. This will accelerate medical breakthroughs.”
Two years ago, NYU cell biologist James Salzer, MD, PhD, received a National MS Society Collaborative Center Award for his vision of bringing researchers and clinicians together to benefit people with MS. When the NYU Langone initiative arose with the very same objective, MS was a logical fit.
Collaborative Center, Center of Excellence, call it what you will — the upshot is that NYU Langone’s already strong MS research and treatment capabilities will see huge expansion in coming years, including new imaging machines, more medical personnel, and an eight-fold increase in clinical space.
“We are hoping to develop a very robust translational medicine component to the Center, whereby we bring discoveries and ideas generated by our neuroscientists to the clinical arena — to patients,” said Joseph Herbert, MD, co-director with Dr. Salzer of the new Center of Excellence.
One mystery that Dr. Herbert hopes will succumb to the combined forces of NYU’s research and clinical teams is why MS occurs less frequently in African-Americans than in Caucasians — but far more severely. MS is virtually unknown in Africa, so Herbert theorizes that something about the mixture of African and European genes that has occurred in America acts as an inflammatory trigger.
If that trigger can be found, maybe it can be disarmed. NYU Langone’s multicultural patient base will be an invaluable asset if clinical trials are called for: Of the 2,500 people currently receiving MS treatment there, 800 are Hispanic and 400 are African-American.
“This is a major goal of ours, to concentrate on this aspect of MS which has not been well addressed so far,” Dr. Herbert said.
With all this support behind them, might the NYU team dare to dream of being the ones who create a world free of MS?
“There is a massive worldwide effort and you never know where the cures are going to come from, but with the quality of people we have here, I’m quite optimistic that NYU will play a significant role in developing new therapeutics,” Dr. Salzer said.
Learn more about MS and NYU from NYU Physician magazine.
- Courtesy National MS Society
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, often disabling disease of the central nervous system. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society estimates that at least 400,000 people, mostly women, in the U.S. have MS.
Each week, 200 new cases of MS are diagnosed. Symptoms range from numbness in the limbs to paralysis or loss of vision.
Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, but the unpredictable physical and emotional effects can last a lifetime. While the progress, severity and specific symptoms of MS in any one person cannot be predicted, advances in research and treatment are giving hope to those affected by the disease.
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