Stu's Views and MS Related News

Published Story by hollie - http://msnews.acceleratedcure.org/node/3326

A team of neurologists in Brazil has developed a protocol for PPMS patients involving periodic methylprednisolone (MP) infusions and has reported [269] positive results so far. Their case report describes eleven patients who had a pre-treatment disease duration of 2 to 17 years and EDSS scores of 5 to 7.

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Info obtained from the Accelerated Cure Project

Latitude gradient decreasing, female/male ratio increasing in MS Published Story by hollie

Individual studies have recently reported on what seems to be a decrease of the MS "latitude gradient" (the lower incidence rate toward the equator) and an increase in the ratio of females to males with MS. To test the overall validity of these indications, two epidemiologists compiled and analyzed MS incidence data from 27 different studies conducted in Europe, the US, and Australia. These studies covered different time periods that ranged from 1950 to 2002.

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FP Trading Desk
Potential BioMS upside comes with risk
Posted June 19, 2008 by David Pett
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I was sent this story by my friends at the Accelerated Cure project, as I too had not know that this drug was finally given a name.
BioMS drug has a name - Published Story by Art
Maybe I was asleep at the wheel, but I think this is the first time I've seen the drug BioMS is developing referred to by anything other than MBP8298. Apparently, it is called 'dirucotide' now.
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A successful phase II trial of BioMS Medical Corp.'s lead compound dirucotide for the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis would undoubtedly give a boost to the biotech share price, but with results not expected to start rolling out until the first quarter of 2009, investors are cautioned in a new report from BMO Capital Markets, to carefully weigh the risks against the potential rewards before jumping in.

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From the Accelerated Cure Project

Here's a story of a woman with MS whose son had a party while she was asleep. Police arrived and arrested her because they thought she was drunk and had allowed the party. They refused to listen to her explain her MS. Seems there should be some sort of card you can carry to ram down ignorant police officers' throats.

Click here, to read the full story

Story by art:

Published http://msnews.acceleratedcure.org/node/3127

As the MS research community starts to move some of its investigations from the inflammatory aspect of MS to the neurodegenerative, they are in need of means to image demyelination and remyelination. This study [137] looked at MTR (a type of imaging for the brain) markers that are believed to indicate myelination activity. They found that remyelination seemed to happen strongly for 3-4 months after an attack and possibly for years after at a lower level. It would seem that our brains can repair themselves.

A New Poll from the Accelerated Cure Project, Initiated by a Question that I had asked, asking if a poll was ever done to know:

How were you birthed?
* Natural (vaginal, no drugs)
* Non-natural (vaginal, drugs, non-induced)
* Induced (vaginal, drug induced labor)
* Cesarean
* Don't know

Click here to answer the poll:
http://msnews.acceleratedcure.org/node/3132

Please don't just answer.
If possible, please reconfirm with your parent on the manner in which you were born.

This was my original question, after learning just a couple of months ago, that " I " was an induced birth. Having never heard this subject, with possible ties to MS, I asked the Accelerated Cure Project, and they now are presenting it to this question to those with MS.


Thank you

Regards,

Stuart Schlossman

From the Accelerated Cure Project
Submitted by hollie on Wed, 2008-02-13 07:52.

People with MS are at increased risk for having epileptic seizures, and these can occur both early in the disease as well as in later stages. The question of what exactly causes seizures in people with MS was recently taken up by a team of researchers from Italy. They used an advanced MRI technique (double inversion recovery (DIR) sequence) to detect cortical lesions in 100 people with MS. Almost all (90%) of the 20 people who'd had seizures had intracortical lesions, vs. just under half (48%) of the 80 people without seizures.

The seizure group also had a greater number of cortical lesions, and their lesions were bigger, than the non-seizure group. However, there was no difference between the groups for number or size of lesions that abutted the cortex or overall brain lesion volume. These findings indicate that inflammation in the cortex increases the risk of epileptic seizures in MS.

This related (via cortical imaging, not epilepsy) study found that higher-strength MRI is not good at seeing all types of cortical lesions, it is better than standard-strength for some.

Steroids Help NMO Relapses

Published Story by Art:
http://msnews.acceleratedcure.org/node/3073

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is a relapsing neurologic disease characterized by severe optic neuritis and transverse myelitis (similar in many ways to MS). A disease-modifying therapy for NMO has not been established. The results of this study [414] suggest a beneficial effect of low-dose corticosteroid monotherapy in reducing relapses in NMO.

Published story by hollie - http://msnews.acceleratedcure.org/node/2942

Many people with MS who use an IFNb therapy do their injections at night so that they can sleep through side effects such as flu-like symptoms.

However, a recent study suggests that injecting in the morning [683] may minimize side effects such as fever. This study was performed with 16 people who were just starting IFNb therapy. Half were given injections at 8 am and the other half at 6 pm. The evening injectors experienced more intense systemic side effects than the morning injectors; the evening injectors also had greater increase of cytokines like IL-6. After six months of treatment, however, all side effects had ceased as had most of the blood chemistry changes. The investigators believe that natural fluctuations of hormones and cytokines over the course of the day and night affect the body's response to IFNb injections. They suggest that anyone having a problem with IFNb side effects might consider trying morning injections to see if that helps.

Want to read more? click >> here <<

Company Is Collaborating with Accelerated Cure Project for Follow-On Studies Using Blood Samples

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Oct 25, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Gene Logic Inc., announced today that it has identified gene expression patterns in white blood cells (WBC) that are statistically associated with multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease of the central nervous system (CNS). The company's genomic analysis also identified gene patterns associated with two recently approved therapies for MS. To validate and extend its initial positive findings, Gene Logic is performing additional studies using blood samples from the repository of the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis (ACP), a non-profit organization that has assembled the largest multi-disciplinary bio-bank for MS research.

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