UVA researchers Dorian Rosen, left, and Alban Gaultier found last year that fluvoxamine may stop deadly sepsis inflammation, in which the immune response spirals out of control. An antidepressant medication is being tested as a potential treatment for COVID-19 after University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers determined it may prevent dangerous overreactions by the immune system.

Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are launching a clinical trial to determine if the drug fluvoxamine can prevent “cytokine storms,” in which the body is flooded with immune cells called cytokines. This frenzied immune response can lead to life-threatening organ failure and has been a major concern in patients with severe COVID-19 infections.

Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms, grandmothers, stepmothers, godmothers, foster mothers, and mothers-to-be. This weekend (at least for those of us in the Northeast) is often the first lovely, warm, sunny time to be out of doors with the family doing things together. We rake, reseed, plant, weed, and mulch our yards and gardens or take time out to go for a hike in the springtime that promises summer is coming. We get the grills out and cleaned and let the family cook for us and wait on us instead of the other way around. It is a time of joy, newness, relaxation, and hope.

MS in the COVID Era. Presented by Doctor Jill Cramer.

On April 30, 2020, Banner Life Sciences LLC (Banner), a privately held specialty pharmaceutical company, announced the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of Bafiertam™ (monomethyl fumarate) delayed-release oral capsules to treat relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). This approval includes the treatment of clinically isolated syndrome (CIS), relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), and active secondary-progressive MS (SPMS). Banner has not yet announced when the medication will be available to the MS community.