NeuroFrontiers

An international collaborative phase 1 study has shown that the injection of a specific form of stem cells into the brains of patients with progressive multiple sclerosis is safe and effective in preventing further brain damage. However, a different type of clinical trial is needed to address whether an advanced cell therapy made of brain-specific stem cells is indeed leading to amelioration of disease features. Take a deeper look into the findings from this study as Dr. Charles Turck speaks with the author of the study, Dr. Stefano Pluchino, Professor of Regenerative Neuroimmunology and Honorary Consultant in Neurology in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at Cambridge University.

According to new research featured in Aging Biology, a treatment involving 4-phenylubrate (PBA) may delay or reverse signs of Alzheimer’s disease. To learn more, Dr. Andrew Wilner dives into the results and potential implications of this mouse-model study with Dr. Jini Naidoo, Research Associate Professor of Sleep Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

A recent phase 1 study investigated the safety and feasibility of combining focused ultrasound and aducanumab, which is a monoclonal antibody for amyloid, to open the blood-brain barrier in patients with Alzheimer's disease. And what the researchers found was about a 50 percent overall reduction of cerebral amyloid-beta load in the target areas compared to the untreated areas. Dive further into these findings and next steps in this line of research that may impact the way we treat Alzheimer’s disease with Dr. Andrew Wilner and Dr. Marc Haut, Director of the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute’s Memory Health Clinic at West Virginia University.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia, there is nothing to definitively give clinicians a diagnosis, so it’s important to have a clinical evaluation and rule out everything else. But once a first episode psychosis diagnosis has been made, what treatment options are available? Dive into this episode with Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Ashley Baker who is joined by Dr. Hannah Brown, Director of the Wellness and Recovery After Psychosis Program at Boston Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine.

According to new research featured at the joint ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS meeting, the Multiple Sclerosis Disease Activity (MSDA) Test is a reliable indicator of recent objective disease activity when used within an academic clinic. Based on these findings, Dr. Andrew Wilner sits down with lead author of the study, Dr. William Kilgo, to discuss how the MSDA can be applied in our real-world clinical practice.

Two recent studies linked childhood stress and stressors experienced across the lifespan to the severity of multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms. In fact, both childhood and adult stressors were associated with MS disability and the so-called invisible symptoms of pain interference and psychiatric morbidity while only adult stressors were related to relapse burden. Joining Dr. Andrew Wilner to discuss these findings and how they may shift our approach to caring for patients with MS is Dr. Carri Polick, a postdoctoral fellow and VA scholar in the Duke National Clinician Scholars Program.

The CHIMES trial is the first phase IV clinical trial focusing exclusively on Black and Hispanics living with multiple sclerosis (MS). Not only did this study reveal key details about the disease burden of MS in this patient population, but it also provides an example of how the cycle of health inequity in research efforts can be broken. Learn more with Dr. Jennifer Caudle and the lead investigator of the CHIMES trial, Dr. Mitzi Joi Williams.

According to a recent study, psychiatric conditions like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia may be early indicators of multiple sclerosis (MS) years before symptoms appear, which could enable the early diagnosis and treatment of patients with MS. Joining Dr. Charles Turck to share key details and findings from this study is Dr. Anibal Chertcoff. Not only is Dr. Chertcoff the lead author of the study, but he’s also a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia where his research centers on characterizing the multiple sclerosis prodrome.

The state of research to better detect multiple sclerosis activity is changing rapidly, with emerging assays and other tools seeking to predict the occurrence of MRI lesions or relapses in patients. To dive into the latest biomarker research for MS in children, tune in with Dr. Ahmed Abdelhak, Clinical Instructor of Neurology at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine.

In past studies, it was seen that multiple sclerosis was more prevalent in White individuals from Northern European ancestry. However, more recent data is showing that MS can happen in anyone and everyone, and there may be slight clinical variations in the disease when we look at different demographic populations. So how can we better serve minority communities? To dive in further, Dr. Charles Turck is joined by Dr. Tirisham Gyang, Clinical Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Ohio State University School of Medicine, and Dr. Gopika Kutty, Neurologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Read their publication, titled “Disparities in Multiple Sclerosis: Incorporating Equity into Clinical Care and Research,” which was published on Practical Neurology in July 2023.