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Basic Immunology Multiple Sclerosis

KIR4.1 antibodies: A revolution in multiple sclerosis

This week we had the opportunity to read a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, describing, in my opinion, a breakthrough finding in MS. It’s published by Srivastava and coworkers, from the University of Munich. It describes the presence of antibodies against the KIR4.1 potassium channel in almost 50% of MS patients. Maybe […]

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Multiple Sclerosis Therapy

Pills for multiple sclerosis

It’s been a while since i wrote last post, but NeuroImmunology has been busy with several other projects. It’s been a while too since i decided to write a monographic post about the different oral treatments that are already available or are about to arrive but i postponed it until i had enough time to […]

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Basic Immunology Multiple Sclerosis

Does multiple sclerosis start from the gut?

MS scientific literature is fascinating. Few neurological (and non-neurological) diseases can compete in number of papers, impact factor and mainstream media attention. However many research projects use classical animal models (experimental allergic encephalmyelitis, EAE) and those animal models have been an enormous source of erroneous extrapolations to MS pathogenesis. Many times the EAE model has […]

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Multiple Sclerosis Therapy

Fingolimod unexpected death

A few days ago we had access to this alert in Medscape. An MS patient, that had completed the 6-hour vigilance period after the first dose of fingolimod, died unexpectedly the next day.  We don’t know much about it and we should wait until this case is resolved and an official report released. We only […]

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Multiple Sclerosis Therapy

Rituximab vs Ocrelizumab in multiple sclerosis

Two weeks ago the annual meeting of the ECTRIMS was held in Amsterdam. As usual, several interesting presentations, some of them probably good enough to change the immediate future of MS clinical practice, were presented. Among them, new data regarding the next 3 new oral therapies that probably will be approved when their results are […]

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Multiple Sclerosis

Interferons, get out!

Today New England Journal of Medicine makes public the results of a large clinical trial with more than a thousand patients comparing results of teriflunomide against placebo in MS. Results are not spectacular, but not bad. It decreased a 30% the annualized relapse rate and reduced the rate of disability progression slightly. The best point […]

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Multiple Sclerosis Others

Extraordinary claims…

… require extraordinary evidence. That is the heading of a “Message from the Editor” in Annals of Neurology published online in April 2011. It comments on a paper demonstrating the absence of retroviral particles in CSF of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome while criticizes the role of publishers (and researchers)  paying (too much) attention to […]

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Multiple Sclerosis Therapy

Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) in multiple sclerosis: a reasonable approach.

Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency is a novel hypothesis, proposed for the first time by Dr Paolo Zamboni, to try to explain the elusive cause of multiple sclerosis (MS). Briefly, this hypothesis proposes that the autoimmune attack against oligodendrocytes and the demyelination process, hallmarks of MS pathology, are caused by an excessive deposition of iron around […]

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Multiple Sclerosis Therapy

Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopahy and Rituximab

In a previous post we discussed the shameful oblivion in which Rituximab has been left apart because of its patent expiry date. Just this week a new paper on Archives of Neurology deepens our disappointment. Besides the great efficacy of Rituximab, maybe comparable to that of Natalizumab (or even better as seen in their phase II […]

Categories
Multiple Sclerosis Therapy

Fingolimod, two years view

The last issue of the Lancet Neurology journal, has published the extension phase study of the TRANSFORMS trial. Briefly, the TRANSFORMS trial was a randomized controlled trial comparing i.m. interferon beta 1a versus two different doses of fingolimod (0.5mg and 1.25mg). Its results were published on New England Journal of Medicine on February 2010, together […]