News

We are excited to announce that Dr. Carlos Mora will be speaking at our upcoming Roanoke Valley MS Support Group meeting on Thursday, January 23, 2025. The meeting will take place at Lydia’s Italian Kitchen, located at 1713 Riverview Drive, Salem, starting promptly at 6:30 PM.

This is a significant opportunity for our community, as Dr. Mora will be sharing important information relevant to those affected by Multiple Sclerosis, particularly in our rural and underserved area. We encourage anyone whose life has been impacted by MS, including caregivers, to join us for this informative evening.

 Come early from 5:30-6:30 PM for social time and to order dinner if you plan to eat (please note that attendees are responsible for their own checks, as we are not funded). While reservations are not necessary to attend, we recommend them due to limited space. To sign up or reserve your spot, please email msav4hope@gmail.com.

 Additionally, if you have any questions you would like to submit in advance for Dr. Mora, please include them in your email response.

 We look forward to seeing you there and hope you can join us for this important discussion!

We hope your New Year is off to a great start! We want to extend a heartfelt invitation to everyone whose lives have been affected by Multiple Sclerosis, including caregivers and family members. You are not alone—join others living with MS who truly understand at our upcoming programs and events.

Here’s what we have planned:

Thursday, January 9th – Lynchburg MS Support Group

• Location: Vinny’s Italian Grill & Pizzeria, 4018 Wards Road, Lynchburg
• Time: 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM (Social Time and Dinner – optional, pay your own dinner)
• Meeting: Starts at 6:30 PM

Saturday, January 11th – Second Saturday Social

• Time: 2:00-5:00 PM
• Location: Roanoke Area MS Center, Salem

Tuesday, January 14th – MSAV Online Support Group

• Topic: “How do you want to live your life right now?”
• Time: 12:00 PM
• Meeting Link: Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7127679497
• Meeting ID: 712 767 9497
• Call-in Option: 1-312-626-6799 or 712-767-9497

Thursday, January 23rd – Roanoke Valley MS Support Group

• Location: Lydia’s Restaurant, Route 419, Salem
• Time: 6:30 PM (Come early for social time and dinner – optional, pay your own from 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM)

Tuesday, January 28th – Bluefield/Princeton WV Support Group

• Location: Board Room at Princeton Community Hospital, 122 Twelfth Street, Princeton
• Time: 6:00 PM

Note: The Bristol Group’s January meeting was canceled due to weather. Please watch for updates.

Important Update: The Floyd Support Group has been canceled due to weather and road conditions.

We look forward to seeing you at these gatherings where you can connect, share, and support one another. Together, we are making a difference!

The MSAV Online MS Support Group will have its first meeting of the year on Tuesday, January 14th at noon on Zoom. The meeting topic will be How Do You Want to Live Your Life Right Now?

Let’s get together and have an open discussion about what is important to us and ways we incorporate those things into our daily routines.

Treatment with Tecfidera (dimethyl fumarate) significantly reduces relapse rates for people with multiple sclerosis (MS), and most MS patients on the approved therapy remain free from disability progression for several years.

That’s according to a final analysis from the Phase 4 ESTEEM clinical trial (NCT02047097), which tracked outcomes from Tecfidera treatment among more than 5,100 MS patients. The results also did not reveal any unexpected safety issues with the long-approved therapy, the researchers noted. Read full story HERE.

IRX4204, a compound that Io Therapeutics is developing to treat neurological diseases, facilitated myelin repair and improved walking abilities in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS) in a recent study, scientists report.

“Our findings support the therapeutic potential of IRX4204 to promote functional neurologic recovery in MS, a long-sought therapeutic objective in the MS research community,” George S. Robertson, PhD, a study co-author at Dalhousie University in Canada and lead scientist for this work, said in a company press release. Read full story HERE.

Most treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS) don’t increase the risk of major problems when used during pregnancy, an analysis showed.

I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2014. Over the past 10 years, my MS has been managed by five healthcare providers.

That’s not how I envisioned my MS care. I’ve had the same primary care provider for almost 20 years, and I naively thought I’d be able to do the same for my MS specialists.

I received my diagnosis from a neurologist who wasn’t an MS specialist. Before then, I spent 18 years dealing with neurological symptoms that were unexplained or misdiagnosed. The neurologist ordered multiple medical tests, which finally led to my diagnosis. Read more HERE…

It’s true and I know a good majority of you have thought the same thing. If we only knew then, what we know now, we would have acted sooner rather than later.

My journey began sometime around 1985. I assumed my physical changes were due to getting older and I adjusted to my new normal. My continual adjustments went on for 19 years. In 2003 I began having trouble walking straight, walking while talking with someone, blurry vision, and walking a few blocks without getting dizzy. Read full story HERE….

Tiziana Life Sciences is expanding its Phase 2 clinical trial testing foralumab nasal spray for the treatment of nonactive secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS), with six additional clinical sites across the northeastern region of the U.S.

Too often, I’d find myself amid joyful moments with loved ones, struggling to keep irritability at bay. At those times, my mind would stagger between living in the happiness of the moment or an overwhelming sense of overstimulation, annoyance, and frustration. Most of the time, the irritability took over.

When that prevailed, my patience would wear thin, and agitation and grumpiness would fill every molecule of my body. My sensitivity to sounds would increase tenfold, I’d experience hot flashes, and my body would feel uneasy. All of those further amplified my mood and made me snappy. I couldn’t predict how long these episodes would last, so I practiced positive thinking to overcome them.

Afterward, I’d spend days replaying those behaviors because…read full story HERE.

Two enzymes in brain cells are responsible for mediating the toxic effects of certain fat molecules in multiple sclerosis (MS), a new study in a mouse model of the disease suggests.

According to the researchers, these enzymes may serve as potential targets for easing neurodegeneration in people with MS.

“This new information points to a specific metabolic pathway through which dietary fats can worsen MS symptoms,” Damien Marechal, PhD, coauthor of the study at City University of New York (CUNY), said in a university news story.

The findings build on a growing body of research that indicates a diet with too much fat — especially the saturated fats abundant in fried and processed foods — can have negative impacts on health for those with MS, the researchers noted….READ FULL STORY HERE…

Since its inception, efforts to criminalize marijuana and to stigmatize those who consume it have been based upon hyperbole, stereotypes and outright lies.

The initial push for cannabis criminalization, which began in earnest more than a century ago, had little to do with preserving public health or safety. Instead, the move to prosecute cannabis users was based primarily on sensationalism and xenophobia.

For instance, a July 6, 1927 story in the New York Times, headlined “Mexican Family Goes Insane,” farcically claimed: “A widow and her four children have been driven insane by eating the marijuana plant, according to doctors, who say there is no hope of saving the children’s lives and that the mother will be insane for the rest of her life.”  Read full story HERE..

Few adults turn to either healthcare providers or government agencies when seeking information about cannabis, according to nationwide survey data published in the Journal of Cannabis Research.

Researchers with the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor surveyed over 1,100 US adults regarding where they obtain cannabis-related information. Read full story HERE…

SetPoint Medical is planning to launch a clinical trial next year to investigate its nerve stimulator device, intending to support myelin repair, in people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS).

The announcement comes after U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of an investigational device exemption, allowing the company to initiate clinical studies to collect safety and efficacy data on the device and its use, SetPoint reported in a company press release.

It also follows a Phase 3 trial of the device in people with rheumatoid arthritis, another autoimmune disease marked by damaging inflammation, that found clinical benefit with reasonable safety.

Aiming to enroll up to 60 RRMS patients at multiple sites in the U.S., the upcoming trial will randomly assign participants to treatment with the device or to a sham procedure. Assignment will be blinded, meaning neither patients nor their treating physicians will know who is receiving which procedure….read full story HERE

South San Francisco, CA — September 13, 2024 —

Genentech, a member of the Roche Group (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today that the United States Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) has approved Ocrevus Zunovo™ (ocrelizumab & hyaluronidase-ocsq) for the treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS) and primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS). Ocrevus Zunovo is the first and only twice-a-year, healthcare professional (HCP)-administered approximately 10-minute subcutaneous (SC) injection approved for both these forms of multiple sclerosis, giving people living with MS more treatment options….READ FULL STORY HERE

The persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated the development and widespread availability of methods to detect the COVID-19 virus in humans. COVID-19 tests, which were initially only available in healthcare facility settings, are now manufactured for home use in the form of rapid diagnostic tests and generally contain a nasal swab, reagent solution, and test device (e.g., card or strip). These kits typically involve application of reagent solution to the test device; in the presence of biological material obtained from the nasal swab, this initiates a chemical reaction that produces the test result.

Multiple COVID-19 rapid antigen home test kids, including those manufactured by Abbott (BinaxNOW™), Beckton, Dickinson and Company (BD Veritor™), Celltrion (Celltrion DiaTrust™), and ACON Laboratories (Flowflex™), contain sodium azide as a component of the reagent solution [[1], [2], [3]]. The reagent in some kits may contain other constituents, including Triton-X, inorganic phosphate, and Pro-Clin 300. The latter ingredients are unlikely to cause human toxicity if small amounts are ingested, but they may cause allergic reactions or local irritation after ocular or dermal exposure. However, sodium azide is well-known for its ability to cause harmful effects in humans, especially after oral exposures and potentially including the ingestion of reagent solution. Additionally, since the reagent solution packaging may include ampules that allow for application of drops of solution to the test device, inadvertent ocular sodium azide exposures can occur if the ampule is mistaken for an eyedropper.

Sodium azide is a water-soluble, tasteless, and odorless chemical that is commonly used as a preservative agent [4]. It is also found as a propellant in some automobile airbags; upon impact, sodium azide ignites and transforms into hydrocarbon gases that cause airbag expansion [5]. Although data concerning acute sodium azide toxicity in humans are limited, the chemical can cause serious adverse events after oral exposure to relatively low doses….

Read full story HERE…

Abata Therapeutics is expected to launch a Phase 1 clinical trial by the end of the year to test ABA-101, its experimental therapy for progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), after getting a green light from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The FDA approved Abata’s investigational new drug (IND) application for ABA-101 in progressive MS, a patient population with few therapeutic options. ABA-101 works by modifying a type of immune cell known as regulatory T-cells, or Tregs.

That decision cleared the way for this first-in-human trial, which will test the treatment candidate in patients with progressive MS.

Read full story HERE…

A Phase 1 clinical trial that’s testing IMP761, an experimental treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) and other autoimmune conditions, has dosed its first healthy participant, the therapy’s developer has announced.

Immutep received regulatory clearance to start the first-in-human trial of IMP761 in the Netherlands about a month ago. The study, which is expected to recruit 49 healthy adults at a single site in Leiden, will evaluate the therapy’s’s safety and pharmacological properties. Safety data are expected by year’s end, and information on its pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics by the first half of 2025. A therapy’s pharmacokinetics refers to its movement into, through, and out of the body, whereas pharmacodynamics describes a treatment’s effects on the body.

Read full story HERE….

A heartfelt congratulations to the Trans Am team for their remarkable cycling journey across the United States of America! They traversed nine states, covering approximately four thousand miles, and ultimately achieved the thrilling milestone of dipping their tires in the mighty Pacific Ocean.

People with multiple sclerosis show subtle alterations in gut bacteria that seem to be consistent across populations in the U.S. and Asia, a new analysis of previously published studies found.

“Our work … establishes a generalized and common gut microbiome pattern in patients with MS across geographically and technically diverse studies,” the researchers wrote. The study, “Meta-analysis identifies common gut microbiota associated with multiple sclerosis,” was published in Genome Medicine.

The human gut is home to billions of bacteria and other microscopic organisms, collectively known as the gut microbiome. These bacteria can powerfully impact human health, but their effects are only beginning to be understood.

Read full story HERE…