Clinical trials update
The risk of MS in African-Americans is about half that of Caucasians. However, the same researchers previously reported that AfricanAmericans tended to have a more aggressive course of MS than Caucasians, a higher risk for mobility impairments, were more likely to develop MS later in life and were at higher risk for symptoms in the optic nerve and spinal cord.
It features 130 studies that are in progress or recently completed. These cover neuroprotective agents; symptom medications; rehabilitation interventions such as cycling for improving MS-related depression, mobility and cognitive function; and more.
A link to herpes? Viruses are well recognized as causes of nervous system damage and inflammation, so it is possible that a virus may set off MS. Various types of evidence point in particular to an association between MS and EpsteinBarr, a herpes virus that causes infectious mononucleosis and other disorders. Now, a new study hints at another possible link, this time between herpes zoster and MS.
The Society’s annual list of clinical trials in MS is now available online at www. nationalMSsociety.org/clinicaltrials.
More than 52,000 volunteers have participated or are currently participating in these studies. Their participation—and yours—makes it possible to look forward to new therapies for MS.
OK to mix pregnancy and MS Research continues to confirm it’s OK to mix pregnancy and MS.
A study published online in Annals of Neurology June 27, 2011, compared 432 Researchers in Taiwan have reported that people births to women with MS and 2975 births who experienced an attack of the virus-triggered to women without MS, confirming previous findings that, overall, the women with MS had herpes zoster—which usually shows up as the normal pregnancies. The mean birth weight skin rash known as shingles—were more than three times as likely to develop MS over the next and gestational age of babies did not differ year than individuals who did not have an attack. and women with MS were not at greater risk The study, reported in The Journal of Infectious of adverse deliveries, including Caesarean Diseases (6/7/2011), used a large data set of sections. Taiwanese people. However, since people of It was the first study where researchers were Chinese genetic background are at lower risk for MS than Caucasians, the researchers do not able to control for other factors that could know yet if this finding will translate to other affect outcomes, such as disability levels, populations. obstetrical history and body mass index.
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can produce. Study participants with a higher proportion of European genetic ancestry were less likely to have low vitamin D levels than participants with a lower proportion of European ancestry.