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NEW ORLEANS – Stem cell therapy for progressive multiple sclerosis is an intriguing and controversial topic, and the state of the related science was addressed during a session on “the treatment pipeline” at a meeting sponsored by the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis.

In a video interview at the meeting, session chair Dr. Mark Freedman of the University of Ottawa (Ont.) discussed the status of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; how mesenchymal stem cells are thought to be a potential source for immune system repair; and the intriguing potential for remyelinating therapy with human oligodendrocyte progenitor cells. Research is in the “very preliminary stage” on human oligodendrocyte progenitor cells, but “enticing news” of a safety trial set to begin in North America was presented during the session, he said.

NEW ORLEANS – Stem cell therapy for progressive multiple sclerosis is an intriguing and controversial topic, and the state of the related science was addressed during a session on “the treatment pipeline” at a meeting sponsored by the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis.

In a video interview at the meeting, session chair Dr. Mark Freedman of the University of Ottawa (Ont.) discussed the status of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; how mesenchymal stem cells are thought to be a potential source for immune system repair; and the intriguing potential for remyelinating therapy with human oligodendrocyte progenitor cells. Research is in the “very preliminary stage” on human oligodendrocyte progenitor cells, but “enticing news” of a safety trial set to begin in North America was presented during the session, he said.

NEW ORLEANS – Stem cell therapy for progressive multiple sclerosis is an intriguing and controversial topic, and the state of the related science was addressed during a session on “the treatment pipeline” at a meeting sponsored by the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis.

In a video interview at the meeting, session chair Dr. Mark Freedman of the University of Ottawa (Ont.) discussed the status of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; how mesenchymal stem cells are thought to be a potential source for immune system repair; and the intriguing potential for remyelinating therapy with human oligodendrocyte progenitor cells. Research is in the “very preliminary stage” on human oligodendrocyte progenitor cells, but “enticing news” of a safety trial set to begin in North America was presented during the session, he said.

NEW ORLEANS – Findings last year from the ORATORIO trial showed for the first time that a pharmaceutical agent – ocrelizumab – was effective for slowing the rate of progression in patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis, but there is as much to learn from the many failed trials and treatments as from this recent success, according to experts at a meeting held by the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis.

“Insofar as we have seen failure after failure in studying progressive MS, we’ve also learned from the studies themselves how best to redesign the studies and how to target the right kind of patients to be able to see a therapeutic effect once that appropriate drug came along,” Dr. John Rinker II said in an interview at the meeting sponsored by the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis.

Dr. Rinker of the University of Alabama at Birmingham chaired a session on “the treatment pipeline” in MS, and noted in the interview that the lessons learned from failed trials could potentially be used to “re-look at some of these older drugs that had been failures in the past and, using a different trial methodology, maybe find some success in the future.”

[email protected]

NEW ORLEANS – Findings last year from the ORATORIO trial showed for the first time that a pharmaceutical agent – ocrelizumab – was effective for slowing the rate of progression in patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis, but there is as much to learn from the many failed trials and treatments as from this recent success, according to experts at a meeting held by the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis.

“Insofar as we have seen failure after failure in studying progressive MS, we’ve also learned from the studies themselves how best to redesign the studies and how to target the right kind of patients to be able to see a therapeutic effect once that appropriate drug came along,” Dr. John Rinker II said in an interview at the meeting sponsored by the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis.

Dr. Rinker of the University of Alabama at Birmingham chaired a session on “the treatment pipeline” in MS, and noted in the interview that the lessons learned from failed trials could potentially be used to “re-look at some of these older drugs that had been failures in the past and, using a different trial methodology, maybe find some success in the future.”

[email protected]

NEW ORLEANS – Findings last year from the ORATORIO trial showed for the first time that a pharmaceutical agent – ocrelizumab – was effective for slowing the rate of progression in patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis, but there is as much to learn from the many failed trials and treatments as from this recent success, according to experts at a meeting held by the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis.

“Insofar as we have seen failure after failure in studying progressive MS, we’ve also learned from the studies themselves how best to redesign the studies and how to target the right kind of patients to be able to see a therapeutic effect once that appropriate drug came along,” Dr. John Rinker II said in an interview at the meeting sponsored by the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis.

Dr. Rinker of the University of Alabama at Birmingham chaired a session on “the treatment pipeline” in MS, and noted in the interview that the lessons learned from failed trials could potentially be used to “re-look at some of these older drugs that had been failures in the past and, using a different trial methodology, maybe find some success in the future.”

[email protected]

New Orleans – A “Lessons from the Bench” session at the meeting held by the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis addressed the ongoing debate regarding the relative importance of neurodegeneration vs. inflammation in progressive multiple sclerosis.

In an interview, session chair Dr. Benjamin Segal discussed the research presented – on topics ranging from immunological biomarkers that could also prove to be therapeutic targets, to immune- and central nervous system–related susceptibility alleles identified in genome wide association studies – and how the findings could lead to new and improved treatments.

“These types of studies give us insights into the immune pathways that are dysregulated in the different diseases and how they may be similar or different from one another. Ultimately all of these scientific studies hopefully will translate into treatments in the future,” said Dr. Segal of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

New Orleans – A “Lessons from the Bench” session at the meeting held by the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis addressed the ongoing debate regarding the relative importance of neurodegeneration vs. inflammation in progressive multiple sclerosis.

In an interview, session chair Dr. Benjamin Segal discussed the research presented – on topics ranging from immunological biomarkers that could also prove to be therapeutic targets, to immune- and central nervous system–related susceptibility alleles identified in genome wide association studies – and how the findings could lead to new and improved treatments.

“These types of studies give us insights into the immune pathways that are dysregulated in the different diseases and how they may be similar or different from one another. Ultimately all of these scientific studies hopefully will translate into treatments in the future,” said Dr. Segal of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

New Orleans – A “Lessons from the Bench” session at the meeting held by the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis addressed the ongoing debate regarding the relative importance of neurodegeneration vs. inflammation in progressive multiple sclerosis.

In an interview, session chair Dr. Benjamin Segal discussed the research presented – on topics ranging from immunological biomarkers that could also prove to be therapeutic targets, to immune- and central nervous system–related susceptibility alleles identified in genome wide association studies – and how the findings could lead to new and improved treatments.

“These types of studies give us insights into the immune pathways that are dysregulated in the different diseases and how they may be similar or different from one another. Ultimately all of these scientific studies hopefully will translate into treatments in the future,” said Dr. Segal of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

LOS ANGELES – In asymptomatic patients under 80 years old, carotid stenting and endarterectomy perform equally as well for severe carotid stenosis out to 5 years, according to a randomized trial published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Overall, 1,032 patients were stented, and 343 had endarterectomies in the trial, called Asymptomatic Carotid Trial I (ACT I). If stenting didn’t look safe on postrandomization angiography, patients were given the option of medical management or crossover into the surgical group. The subjects all had bifurcation carotid stenosis blocking at least 70% of the lumen. None were at high risk for surgical complications. “Asymptomatic” meant they hadn’t had a stroke, transient ischemic attack, or amaurosis fugax in the 6 months before enrollment. Stenting and endarterectomy were done by physicians and centers well experienced in the techniques (N Engl J Med. 2016 Feb 17. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1515706).

At 1 year, stenting was noninferior to endarterectomy for the primary composite endpoint of death, stroke, or myocardial infarction within 30 days after the procedure or ipsilateral stroke within 1 year; the event rate was 3.8% among stent patients and 3.4% among endarterectomy patients (P = .01 for noninferiority, with a noninferiority margin of 3 percentage points).

The cumulative 5-year stroke-free survival rate was 93.1% in the stenting group and 94.7% in the endarterectomy group (P = .44).

For now, the results mean that sometimes choosing between carotid endarterectomy or stenting (or medical management) has as much to do with patient and physician preference as medical science, raising the difficult question of how to choose. In a video interview at the International Stroke Conference, investigator Dr. Lawrence Wechsler, professor of neurology/neurosurgery and chair of the department of neurology at the University of Pittsburgh, shared his thoughts on that and the other implications of the study. The work was funded by Abbott Vascular.

[email protected]

LOS ANGELES – In asymptomatic patients under 80 years old, carotid stenting and endarterectomy perform equally as well for severe carotid stenosis out to 5 years, according to a randomized trial published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Overall, 1,032 patients were stented, and 343 had endarterectomies in the trial, called Asymptomatic Carotid Trial I (ACT I). If stenting didn’t look safe on postrandomization angiography, patients were given the option of medical management or crossover into the surgical group. The subjects all had bifurcation carotid stenosis blocking at least 70% of the lumen. None were at high risk for surgical complications. “Asymptomatic” meant they hadn’t had a stroke, transient ischemic attack, or amaurosis fugax in the 6 months before enrollment. Stenting and endarterectomy were done by physicians and centers well experienced in the techniques (N Engl J Med. 2016 Feb 17. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1515706).

At 1 year, stenting was noninferior to endarterectomy for the primary composite endpoint of death, stroke, or myocardial infarction within 30 days after the procedure or ipsilateral stroke within 1 year; the event rate was 3.8% among stent patients and 3.4% among endarterectomy patients (P = .01 for noninferiority, with a noninferiority margin of 3 percentage points).

The cumulative 5-year stroke-free survival rate was 93.1% in the stenting group and 94.7% in the endarterectomy group (P = .44).

For now, the results mean that sometimes choosing between carotid endarterectomy or stenting (or medical management) has as much to do with patient and physician preference as medical science, raising the difficult question of how to choose. In a video interview at the International Stroke Conference, investigator Dr. Lawrence Wechsler, professor of neurology/neurosurgery and chair of the department of neurology at the University of Pittsburgh, shared his thoughts on that and the other implications of the study. The work was funded by Abbott Vascular.

[email protected]

LOS ANGELES – In asymptomatic patients under 80 years old, carotid stenting and endarterectomy perform equally as well for severe carotid stenosis out to 5 years, according to a randomized trial published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Overall, 1,032 patients were stented, and 343 had endarterectomies in the trial, called Asymptomatic Carotid Trial I (ACT I). If stenting didn’t look safe on postrandomization angiography, patients were given the option of medical management or crossover into the surgical group. The subjects all had bifurcation carotid stenosis blocking at least 70% of the lumen. None were at high risk for surgical complications. “Asymptomatic” meant they hadn’t had a stroke, transient ischemic attack, or amaurosis fugax in the 6 months before enrollment. Stenting and endarterectomy were done by physicians and centers well experienced in the techniques (N Engl J Med. 2016 Feb 17. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1515706).

At 1 year, stenting was noninferior to endarterectomy for the primary composite endpoint of death, stroke, or myocardial infarction within 30 days after the procedure or ipsilateral stroke within 1 year; the event rate was 3.8% among stent patients and 3.4% among endarterectomy patients (P = .01 for noninferiority, with a noninferiority margin of 3 percentage points).

The cumulative 5-year stroke-free survival rate was 93.1% in the stenting group and 94.7% in the endarterectomy group (P = .44).

For now, the results mean that sometimes choosing between carotid endarterectomy or stenting (or medical management) has as much to do with patient and physician preference as medical science, raising the difficult question of how to choose. In a video interview at the International Stroke Conference, investigator Dr. Lawrence Wechsler, professor of neurology/neurosurgery and chair of the department of neurology at the University of Pittsburgh, shared his thoughts on that and the other implications of the study. The work was funded by Abbott Vascular.

[email protected]

LOS ANGELES – Clot removal to recanalize the occluded intracerebral arteries of acute ischemic stroke patients was as effective for producing good outcomes in patients aged 80 years or older as it was in younger patients, according to results from a pooled analysis of 1,287 patients in five separate but similar randomized trials.

This unprecedented evidence for the safety and efficacy of thrombectomy (also known as embolectomy) in octogenarians experiencing an acute occlusive, large-vessel, proximal anterior-circulation stroke was one of several new findings from the pooled analysis that should help further push thrombectomy to the forefront of acute care for patients undergoing this type of ischemic stroke, predicted Dr. Wade S. Smith in a video interview at the International Stroke Conference.

“By looking at all the data, we have much more refined information on the robustness of the treatment across age groups, which is quite important, especially patients in the 80-plus age group,” commented Dr. Smith, professor of neurology and chief of the neurovascular division at the University of California, San Francisco.

Until now, during the year following the reports in early 2015 from all five studies, “age had been a limiting factor” in applying the practicing-changing intervention of thrombectomy to patients, he noted.

“This [the new pooled analysis] will change that,” Dr. Smith predicted. “It does not apply to patients who were infirm prior to their stroke – but for patients who were otherwise healthy, with a modified Rankin scale level of 0 or 1 at initial presentation, it appears that they benefit [from thrombectomy] regardless of their age.” In the pooled analysis, 198 of the 1,287 total patients (15%) were at least 80 years old.

“It removes age discrimination. A healthy 80-year-old may do extremely well with this treatment,” Dr. Smith said.

The consistency of benefit across a wide range of stroke severity that showed up in the trials as four distinct strata of NIH Stroke Scale scores prior to treatment was another important finding that could not previously be definitively made by analyzing each of the five trials individually.

In patients with stroke-severity scores that ranged from 10 or less (the least severely affected) to patients with scores of 21 or greater, all had post-thrombectomy improvements that clustered around the overall average number-needed-to-treat of 2.6 patients to reduce the disability of one patient at follow-up by at least one level on the modified Rankin scale.

Other notable findings from the pooled analysis were that thrombectomy also produced a consistent benefit to patients across every other subgroup examined, including sex, specific occlusion site, whether or not patients also received thrombolytic treatment with tissue plasminogen activator, and time to thrombectomy treatment (5 or fewer hours from stroke onset or more than 5 hours), reported Dr. Michael D. Hill and Dr. Tudor G. Jovin in a joint presentation at the meeting, sponsored by the American Heart Association.

Their pooled analysis, known as HERMES, pooled data from the MR CLEAN, ESCAPE, REVASCAT, SWIFT PRIME, and EXTEND IA trials, all run during 2010-2014.

“Endovascular treatment is a highly effective treatment across all subgroups,” concluded Dr. Hill and Dr. Jovin as they completed their talk. “These data may provide additional support for endovascular treatment in subgroups not addressed in the individual trials.”

Concurrent with their report at the meeting, the results appeared in a paper published online (Lancet. 2016 Feb 18;doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)00163-X).

Both Dr. Jovin and Dr. Hill shared the enthusiasm of Dr. Smith and others in the packed meeting room about the age finding.

“Older patients seemed to benefit even more” from thrombectomy, compared with younger patients, noted Dr. Jovin, chief of the stroke division at the University of Pittsburgh and a coinvestigator on SWIFT PRIME. “There is no reason to deny this treatment to appropriately selected patients based on age,” he said.

“There is no upper age limit,” agreed Dr. Hill, professor of neurology and director of the stroke unit at the University of Calgary (Alta.) and a coinvestigator on the ESCAPE trial. “If it’s an otherwise healthy 90-year-old who is living independently, you can surely consider them for this treatment.”

HERMES received fundings through an unrestricted grant from Medtronic. Dr. Hill and Dr. Jovin had no personal disclosures. Dr. Smith served on the data safety and monitoring board for a trial funded by Stryker.

[email protected]

On Twitter @mitchelzoler

LOS ANGELES – Clot removal to recanalize the occluded intracerebral arteries of acute ischemic stroke patients was as effective for producing good outcomes in patients aged 80 years or older as it was in younger patients, according to results from a pooled analysis of 1,287 patients in five separate but similar randomized trials.

This unprecedented evidence for the safety and efficacy of thrombectomy (also known as embolectomy) in octogenarians experiencing an acute occlusive, large-vessel, proximal anterior-circulation stroke was one of several new findings from the pooled analysis that should help further push thrombectomy to the forefront of acute care for patients undergoing this type of ischemic stroke, predicted Dr. Wade S. Smith in a video interview at the International Stroke Conference.

“By looking at all the data, we have much more refined information on the robustness of the treatment across age groups, which is quite important, especially patients in the 80-plus age group,” commented Dr. Smith, professor of neurology and chief of the neurovascular division at the University of California, San Francisco.

Until now, during the year following the reports in early 2015 from all five studies, “age had been a limiting factor” in applying the practicing-changing intervention of thrombectomy to patients, he noted.

“This [the new pooled analysis] will change that,” Dr. Smith predicted. “It does not apply to patients who were infirm prior to their stroke – but for patients who were otherwise healthy, with a modified Rankin scale level of 0 or 1 at initial presentation, it appears that they benefit [from thrombectomy] regardless of their age.” In the pooled analysis, 198 of the 1,287 total patients (15%) were at least 80 years old.

“It removes age discrimination. A healthy 80-year-old may do extremely well with this treatment,” Dr. Smith said.

The consistency of benefit across a wide range of stroke severity that showed up in the trials as four distinct strata of NIH Stroke Scale scores prior to treatment was another important finding that could not previously be definitively made by analyzing each of the five trials individually.

In patients with stroke-severity scores that ranged from 10 or less (the least severely affected) to patients with scores of 21 or greater, all had post-thrombectomy improvements that clustered around the overall average number-needed-to-treat of 2.6 patients to reduce the disability of one patient at follow-up by at least one level on the modified Rankin scale.

Other notable findings from the pooled analysis were that thrombectomy also produced a consistent benefit to patients across every other subgroup examined, including sex, specific occlusion site, whether or not patients also received thrombolytic treatment with tissue plasminogen activator, and time to thrombectomy treatment (5 or fewer hours from stroke onset or more than 5 hours), reported Dr. Michael D. Hill and Dr. Tudor G. Jovin in a joint presentation at the meeting, sponsored by the American Heart Association.

Their pooled analysis, known as HERMES, pooled data from the MR CLEAN, ESCAPE, REVASCAT, SWIFT PRIME, and EXTEND IA trials, all run during 2010-2014.

“Endovascular treatment is a highly effective treatment across all subgroups,” concluded Dr. Hill and Dr. Jovin as they completed their talk. “These data may provide additional support for endovascular treatment in subgroups not addressed in the individual trials.”

Concurrent with their report at the meeting, the results appeared in a paper published online (Lancet. 2016 Feb 18;doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)00163-X).

Both Dr. Jovin and Dr. Hill shared the enthusiasm of Dr. Smith and others in the packed meeting room about the age finding.

“Older patients seemed to benefit even more” from thrombectomy, compared with younger patients, noted Dr. Jovin, chief of the stroke division at the University of Pittsburgh and a coinvestigator on SWIFT PRIME. “There is no reason to deny this treatment to appropriately selected patients based on age,” he said.

“There is no upper age limit,” agreed Dr. Hill, professor of neurology and director of the stroke unit at the University of Calgary (Alta.) and a coinvestigator on the ESCAPE trial. “If it’s an otherwise healthy 90-year-old who is living independently, you can surely consider them for this treatment.”

HERMES received fundings through an unrestricted grant from Medtronic. Dr. Hill and Dr. Jovin had no personal disclosures. Dr. Smith served on the data safety and monitoring board for a trial funded by Stryker.

[email protected]

On Twitter @mitchelzoler

LOS ANGELES – Clot removal to recanalize the occluded intracerebral arteries of acute ischemic stroke patients was as effective for producing good outcomes in patients aged 80 years or older as it was in younger patients, according to results from a pooled analysis of 1,287 patients in five separate but similar randomized trials.

This unprecedented evidence for the safety and efficacy of thrombectomy (also known as embolectomy) in octogenarians experiencing an acute occlusive, large-vessel, proximal anterior-circulation stroke was one of several new findings from the pooled analysis that should help further push thrombectomy to the forefront of acute care for patients undergoing this type of ischemic stroke, predicted Dr. Wade S. Smith in a video interview at the International Stroke Conference.

“By looking at all the data, we have much more refined information on the robustness of the treatment across age groups, which is quite important, especially patients in the 80-plus age group,” commented Dr. Smith, professor of neurology and chief of the neurovascular division at the University of California, San Francisco.

Until now, during the year following the reports in early 2015 from all five studies, “age had been a limiting factor” in applying the practicing-changing intervention of thrombectomy to patients, he noted.

“This [the new pooled analysis] will change that,” Dr. Smith predicted. “It does not apply to patients who were infirm prior to their stroke – but for patients who were otherwise healthy, with a modified Rankin scale level of 0 or 1 at initial presentation, it appears that they benefit [from thrombectomy] regardless of their age.” In the pooled analysis, 198 of the 1,287 total patients (15%) were at least 80 years old.

“It removes age discrimination. A healthy 80-year-old may do extremely well with this treatment,” Dr. Smith said.

The consistency of benefit across a wide range of stroke severity that showed up in the trials as four distinct strata of NIH Stroke Scale scores prior to treatment was another important finding that could not previously be definitively made by analyzing each of the five trials individually.

In patients with stroke-severity scores that ranged from 10 or less (the least severely affected) to patients with scores of 21 or greater, all had post-thrombectomy improvements that clustered around the overall average number-needed-to-treat of 2.6 patients to reduce the disability of one patient at follow-up by at least one level on the modified Rankin scale.

Other notable findings from the pooled analysis were that thrombectomy also produced a consistent benefit to patients across every other subgroup examined, including sex, specific occlusion site, whether or not patients also received thrombolytic treatment with tissue plasminogen activator, and time to thrombectomy treatment (5 or fewer hours from stroke onset or more than 5 hours), reported Dr. Michael D. Hill and Dr. Tudor G. Jovin in a joint presentation at the meeting, sponsored by the American Heart Association.

Their pooled analysis, known as HERMES, pooled data from the MR CLEAN, ESCAPE, REVASCAT, SWIFT PRIME, and EXTEND IA trials, all run during 2010-2014.

“Endovascular treatment is a highly effective treatment across all subgroups,” concluded Dr. Hill and Dr. Jovin as they completed their talk. “These data may provide additional support for endovascular treatment in subgroups not addressed in the individual trials.”

Concurrent with their report at the meeting, the results appeared in a paper published online (Lancet. 2016 Feb 18;doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)00163-X).

Both Dr. Jovin and Dr. Hill shared the enthusiasm of Dr. Smith and others in the packed meeting room about the age finding.

“Older patients seemed to benefit even more” from thrombectomy, compared with younger patients, noted Dr. Jovin, chief of the stroke division at the University of Pittsburgh and a coinvestigator on SWIFT PRIME. “There is no reason to deny this treatment to appropriately selected patients based on age,” he said.

“There is no upper age limit,” agreed Dr. Hill, professor of neurology and director of the stroke unit at the University of Calgary (Alta.) and a coinvestigator on the ESCAPE trial. “If it’s an otherwise healthy 90-year-old who is living independently, you can surely consider them for this treatment.”

HERMES received fundings through an unrestricted grant from Medtronic. Dr. Hill and Dr. Jovin had no personal disclosures. Dr. Smith served on the data safety and monitoring board for a trial funded by Stryker.

[email protected]

On Twitter @mitchelzoler

NEW ORLEANS – A focus of the 2016 Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum is the pathogenic mechanisms involved in progressive forms of MS, including the genetic and environmental underpinnings and the immunopathologic processes involved, according to ACTRIMS president, Dr. Suhayl Dhib-Jalbut.

In particular, the role of B cells in the pathogenesis of progressive disease will be addressed as recent studies targeting B lymphocytes are providing important new information about the importance of B cells in the pathogenesis of progressive MS.

In this video interview, Dr. Dhib-Jalbut, professor and chair of the department of neurology at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, N.J., notes that it is hypothesized that in progressive MS, there is a depletion of energy in the central nervous system. Studies of medications that can restore mitochondrial function and energy pools and perhaps have an impact on disease progression will be presented during the forum, he said.

[email protected]

NEW ORLEANS – A focus of the 2016 Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum is the pathogenic mechanisms involved in progressive forms of MS, including the genetic and environmental underpinnings and the immunopathologic processes involved, according to ACTRIMS president, Dr. Suhayl Dhib-Jalbut.

In particular, the role of B cells in the pathogenesis of progressive disease will be addressed as recent studies targeting B lymphocytes are providing important new information about the importance of B cells in the pathogenesis of progressive MS.

In this video interview, Dr. Dhib-Jalbut, professor and chair of the department of neurology at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, N.J., notes that it is hypothesized that in progressive MS, there is a depletion of energy in the central nervous system. Studies of medications that can restore mitochondrial function and energy pools and perhaps have an impact on disease progression will be presented during the forum, he said.

[email protected]

NEW ORLEANS – A focus of the 2016 Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum is the pathogenic mechanisms involved in progressive forms of MS, including the genetic and environmental underpinnings and the immunopathologic processes involved, according to ACTRIMS president, Dr. Suhayl Dhib-Jalbut.

In particular, the role of B cells in the pathogenesis of progressive disease will be addressed as recent studies targeting B lymphocytes are providing important new information about the importance of B cells in the pathogenesis of progressive MS.

In this video interview, Dr. Dhib-Jalbut, professor and chair of the department of neurology at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, N.J., notes that it is hypothesized that in progressive MS, there is a depletion of energy in the central nervous system. Studies of medications that can restore mitochondrial function and energy pools and perhaps have an impact on disease progression will be presented during the forum, he said.

[email protected]