Why Clinical Trials Matter - You play an essential role
https://www.guidetoclinicaltrials.com/why-clinical-trials-matter
Before a potential new medicine can be used to help treat patients, it must go through a series of studies in people. Volunteers like you who take part in clinical trials make valuable contributions to advancing the understanding of diseases and the discovery of new or improved treatments.
How your participation helps
Each year, millions of people help advance medical science by volunteering to take part in clinical trials. While there are many reasons for participating, all who volunteer contribute valuable information to help researchers find better treatments that may improve lives.
Information republished
MS Views and News provides beneficial Multiple Sclerosis education, information, resources and services.
• GeNeuro-Servier Antibody Limits RRMS Patients' Brain Shrinkage, Phase 2b Trial Shows
The laboratory-generated antibody GNbAC1 continued to limit brain shrinkage a year after relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients began receiving it, its developers announced.
GeNeuro and Servier were reporting on the 12-month results of a Phase 2b clinical trial.
GNbAC1 is a monoclonal antibody that destroys a harmful retroviral protein called pHERV-W which scientists have linked to brain lesions in MS patients. Lesions are areas where the myelin coating that protects nerve cells has deteriorated.
The Phase 2b CHANGE-MS trial (NCT02782858), conducted in 12 European countries, involved 270 RRMS patients. Researchers randomized them to receive the antibody or a placebo once a month by intravenous infusion.
GeNeuro and Servier said a year's worth of GNbAC1 led to much brain loss among MS patients than a regimen consisting of six months of a placebo and six months of the antibody. The difference in brain atrophy was 31 percent in the brain's cortical area and 72 percent in the thalamic areas.
Predicting Episodic Memory Loss in Patients with MS
Mult Scler; ePub 2018 Mar 7; Koenig, et al
Functional activation may be useful as a predictive measure of episodic memory loss in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), a recent study found. Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a verbal episodic memory task, lesion load, and volumetric measures of the hippocampus and thalamus to assess the relative contributions to verbal and visual-spatial episodic memory in persons with MS (n=32) and healthy controls (n=16). They found:
After adjusting for disease duration, immediate recall performance on a visual-spatial episodic memory task was significantly predicted by hippocampal volume.
Delayed recall on the same task was significantly predicted by volume of the left thalamus.
For both memory measures, functional activation of the thalamus during encoding was more predictive than that of volume measures.
Sun Exposure Associated with Lower MS Risk
Neurology; ePub 2018 Mar 7; Tremlett, et al
Living in high ambient UV-B areas during childhood and the years leading up to multiple sclerosis (MS) onset was associated with a lower MS risk, according to a recent study. Furthermore, high summer sun exposure in high ambient UV-B areas was also associated with a reduced risk. Persons with MS (n=151) and age-matched controls (n=235) from the Nurses' Health Study cohorts completed questionnaires that assessed summer, winter, and lifetime sun exposure history. Relative risks and 95% confidence intervals were estimated via conditional logistic regression with adjustment for body mass index, ancestry, smoking, and vitamin D supplementation. They found:
Most participants were white (98%); the mean age at MS onset was 39.5 years.
Living in high (vs low) UV-B areas before MS onset was associated with a 45% lower MS risk.
Similar reduced risks (51%–52%) for medium or high exposure were observed at ages 5 to 15 years and at 5 to 15 years before MS onset.
At age 5 to 15 years, living in a high (vs low) UV-B area and having high (vs low) summer sun exposure were associated with a lower MS risk.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Why Clinical Trials Matter - You play an essenti...
• GeNeuro-Servier Antibody Limits RRMS Patients' B...
Predicting Episodic Memory Loss in Patients with M...