An MS Research Revolution
RESEARCH ROUND-UP: MAY 2014 STOP
RESTORE
TB Vaccine May Open A New Treatment Approach For MS Italian researchers published preliminary evidence in Neurology that the Bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccine used to prevent tuberculosis may prevent people who exhibited an initial neurological attack from developing clinically definite multiple sclerosis. Giovanni Ristori, M.D., and colleagues performed a double blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial with 73 participants. Six months after the injection, the 33 participants who received the real vaccine had fewer active brain lesions consistent with MS than the 40 participants who had received the placebo injection. This suggests a decrease in disease activity. Five years after completing the study, those who had been vaccinated were less likely to have experienced relapses and receive a diagnosis of clinically definite MS than those who received the placebo injection. This small study provides intriguing evidence for a potentially beneficial effect of the vaccination in curbing MS.
Hydration May Account For Varying Results In CCSVI Studies Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI for short, is a reported abnormality in blood drainage from the brain and spinal cord which may contribute to nervous system damage in MS. Since its original reporting, there have been conflicting results on the prevalence of CCSVI in MS, and the National MS Society has been active in finding out why. Sixteen subjects, 11 with MS and five controls, were asked to fast overnight. The following morning, two CCSVI ultrasound examinations were performed, one in the mildly dehydrated state, and another 30 minutes after rehydrating with 1.5 liters of a sports drink. Seven subjects fulfilled CCSVI criteria in the dehydrated state. After rehydration, five (71 percent) no longer fulfilled CCSVI criteria. These results, published in Neurology Clinical Practice, suggest that studies of CCSVI should standardize the state of hydration among participants, and offers one possible explanation for the variety of results reported previously. Additional results from this and other teams in the coming months should shed further light on CCSVI and its implications for people living with MS and for organizations focusing on speeding research toward stopping MS, restoring function and ending MS forever. 8
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Skin Tissue May Hold Promise For Treating MS New research co-funded by the National MS Society has reported that stem cells derived from mouse skin tissue were able to reduce nervous system damage in mice, offering further evidence for the possibility that stem cells might be used for cell therapy to treat MS. The study, conducted by a team of researchers at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, forced mouse skin cells through a process of ‘cell reprogramming’ to become myelin-making cells. This technique allows specialized cells, such as skin cells, to become embryonic-like stem cells which have the ability to become any kind of cell. This discovery opens new therapeutic possibilities for multiple sclerosis patients because it might target the damage to myelin itself. While more work is needed, this type of research gives hope that this strategy may help restore loss of function.
Walking Speed May Help Track MS Progression A University of Virginia study published in the October 2013 issue of Neurology revealed that the walking speed of people with MS may provide benchmarks of the extent of disease progression and the impact of MS on a person’s daily activities and function. The team of researchers recruited 300 people living with MS who had undergone a “Timed 25-Foot Walk,” or T25-FW, in the previous 15 months, asking each to fill out a survey collecting information on marital status, employment, activities of daily living, use of assistive devices, walking function and depression. Investigators found that T25-FW times slower than six and eight seconds may represent two benchmarks related to impairments in important life activities. This study is aligned with the National MS Society’s fouryear, $3 million Multiple Sclerosis Outcome Assessments Consortium, which, in conjunction with the Critical Path Institute, was announced in December 2012. This project enables the collection of clinical data from many MS clinical trials and should lead to a new way of measuring MS progression. Further research is needed to understand how clinically meaningful these benchmarks are and how useful they might be in tracking MS progression over time.