Multiple Sclerosis Discovery: The Podcast Of The Ms Discovery Forum

[intro music]   Hello, and welcome to Episode Twenty of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.   This week’s podcast features an interview with Dr. Jeffery Cohen about two clinical trials. But to begin, here is a brief summary of some of the latest developments on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org. Genome-wide association studies are raising more questions than they answer for multiple sclerosis, according to new research. As the number of risky genetic variants grew, researchers began to wonder if many of those variants would be found in the murky waters of “noncoding DNA,” which comprises about 98% of the human genome. Those fears were confirmed in a study published last month in the journal Nature. According to the report, almost 90% of the risk variants fell within the noncoding region and 60% were found in areas known as enhancers or switches. These areas manage gene activity, though researchers are far from fully understanding how they wor

[intro music]   Host – Dan Keller Hello, and welcome to Episode Nineteen of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.   This week’s podcast features the second half of an interview with Dr. Samuel Ludwin. This time Dr. Ludwin and I discuss the implications of treating multiple sclerosis subtypes. But to begin, here is a brief summary of some of the latest developments on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.   This week we reported some good news: a large case-controlled study showed that there is no causal link between vaccines and multiple sclerosis. However, the study came with the caveat that there is some increased risk for developing MS in younger patients who receive vaccines. This increased risk is likely due to the vaccines triggering a pre-existing asymptomatic condition, the researchers said. The study, which was published in the journal JAMA Neurology, was most concerned with the role that vaccines for hepatitis B and human papillomavirus

Hello, and welcome to Episode Eighteen of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.   The term “neuroscience” makes it very clear who is the star of the show—neurons. But over the past few years, glial cells have been elbowing their way in from supporting cast to stars in their own right. We recently reported a story about how oligodendrocytes need to make new myelin in order for mice to learn a new motor task effectively. The study demonstrated how glia are required in active learning, as well as highlighted the importance of targeting remyelination in new therapies for demyelinating disorders.   Finally, we recently added a new data visualization examining the differences in baseline characteristics of patients in 74 RRMS and CIS clinical trials. You can easily see how individual trials compare to the overall mean values of gender, age, Expanded Disability Status Scale score, the number of gadolinium enhancing lesions, and the volume of T2 lesions. To se

[intro music]   Host – Dan Keller  Hello, and welcome to Episode Seventeen of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.   This week’s podcast features an interview with Dr. Hans Lassmann about the usefulness of animal models for studying multiple sclerosis. But to begin, here’s a brief summary of the developments at the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.   In the progressive stage of multiple sclerosis, some astrocytes appear to upregulate genes that intensify inflammation and neurodegeneration. Researchers think that genetic changes cause astrocytes to release a fatty molecule that beckons inflammatory monocytes from the blood into the brain. A drug, miglustat, currently used in the treatment of Gaucher’s disease, may be a good candidate to repurpose as a drug to inhibit astrocytes from initiating this destructive process.   The so-called “long life” protein, Klotho, may hold the keys to remyelination. Named after the Greek goddess responsible for “sp

[intro music]   Hello, and welcome to Episode Sixteen of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.   This week’s podcast features an interview with Dr. Revere “Rip” Kinkel about how to improve patient outreach. But to begin, here is a brief summary of some of the latest developments on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.   First, researchers are questioning if cognitive MS is a distinct entity. For some patients with MS, cognitive symptoms dominate over all other symptoms. Some of the symptoms could even be described as dementia. Researchers examined a small sample of this distinct subset of patients in a recent study in Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery and found that many had severe brain atrophy and a high lesion load. While the results suggest that cognitive MS may be a distinct disease entity, the researchers are cautious not to draw any conclusions due to the small sample size and the weight of the term “dementia”.   An experimental oral age

[intro music]   Host – Dan Keller  Hello, and welcome to Episode Fifteen of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.   This week’s podcast features an interview with Professor Ludwig Kappos about a recent head-to-head clinical trial of the experimental drug, daclizumab, versus interferon. But to begin, here's a brief summary of some of the latest developments on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.   We recently released a news synthesis by science writer, Carol Morton, that goes along with this podcast. The article is all about daclizumab, its history, and the recent results of the phase 3 clinical trial. The results of the clinical trial show that the drug is better than interferon at reducing disease activity in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. Surprisingly, recent research suggests that daclizumab works by natural killer cells to target autologous T cells. It may also work in two more unusual ways—go to our website to read t

[intro music]   Host – Dan Keller Hello, and welcome to Episode Fourteen of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.   This week’s podcast features part two of an interview with Professor Gavin Giovannoni about the role of Epstein-Barr virus in MS. But to begin, here is a brief summary of some of the latest developments on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.   We've published a blog post from Christine Granfield, the founder of HealthCare Journey. Healthcarejourney.org is a website designed to help MS patients easily navigate the expanse of information about MS. In the blog post, Ms. Granfield says that HealthCare Journey is not meant to replace the doctor-patient relationship but instead provide a place where patients can find answers to questions with accurate, up-to-date information when their physician might not be available.   We published another blog post written by our intern, Cynthia McKelvey, on how to interact with the news media. News a

[intro music]   Hello, and welcome to Episode Thirteen of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.   This week’s podcast features an interview with Dr. Alan Thompson about the International Progressive MS Alliance, a new collaborative effort to unravel the mysteries of progressive MS. But to begin, here is a brief summary of our time at the ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS meeting in Boston.   The M-S-D-F editorial staff was in full force at MS Boston 2014. We were everywhere covering talks and poster sessions, tweeting up a storm. We live-tweeted the Plenary sessions and most of the talks. If you missed the, or just want to relive the highlights, you can see a roundup of all the best tweets from MS Boston 2014 at our blog on msdiscovery dot o-r-g.   At the meeting we recorded several interviews for future Multiple Sclerosis Discovery podcasts. We’re excited to bring you interviews with researchers, [Dan, name three people you interviewed], and more over the coming weeks

[intro music]   Host – Dan Keller Hello, and welcome to Episode Twelve of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.   This week’s podcast features an interview with Professor Gavin Giovannoni about the potential for finding a cure for MS. But to begin, here’s a brief summary of some of the latest developments on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.   Monocytes and microglia are hard to tell apart and as a result, their roles are poorly understood in MS. But we recently covered a paper that demonstrated separate roles for these macrophages in EAE. Using fluorescent tags, the researchers were able to determine that monocytes were directly attacking the myelin. Meanwhile, microglia arrived to the same area of myelin attack only to be shut down. The paper has major implications for future methods in studying MS as well as for the mechanisms of the disease itself.   We published another data visualization recently, titled the “MS Galaxy.” The visualizatio

[intro music]   Host – Dan Keller Hello, and welcome to Episode Eleven of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.   This week’s podcast features an interview with Dr. Jack Antel about remyelination and microglia. But to begin, here is a brief summary of some of the latest developments on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.   Our latest data visualization reveals a mystery in relapsing-remitting MS. It appears that the annualized relapse rates of patients in the placebo arms of clinical trials – the placebo arms – have been decreasing since 1993. What could possibly account for this? We invite your hypotheses. Visit the MSDF website and go to our data visualizations page under “research resources.” From there you can connect to a discussion forum we’re hosting to share your opinions.   Deep brain stimulation is an extreme brain surgery that can lead to dramatic improvements in patients with Parkinson’s disease or obsessive-compulsive disorder. But

[intro music]   Host – Dan Keller  Hello, and welcome to Episode Ten of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.   This week’s podcast features an interview with Dr. Richard Ransohoff about his group’s latest research. But to begin, here is a brief summary of some of the latest developments on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.   We reported on two research articles on B cells published in “Science Translational Medicine". The authors suggested B cells are activated in the peripheral lymph nodes before migrating to the CNS in patients with MS. It appears that after activation the B cells travel back and forth between the CNS and the lymph nodes. The findings have implications for monoclonal antibodies rituximab and ocrelizumab, which reduce peripheral B cell numbers, as well as natalizumab, which prevents lymphocyte migration across the blood-brain barrier.    Together, MSDF and our non-profit publisher, the Accelerated Cure Project – ACP – are co

[intro music]   Host – Dan Keller Hello, and welcome to Episode Nine of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.   This week’s podcast features an interview with researcher Amit Bar-Or about how children with MS can illuminate early mechanisms of the disease. But to begin, here's a brief summary of some of the topics we’ve been covering on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.   According to a Cochrane meta-analysis, interferon-beta and glatiramer acetate are clinically similar treatments for multiple sclerosis. Researchers analyzed five head-to-head clinical trials and found that both drugs did similarly well in improving disability scores and MRI measures in patients with relapsing remitting MS. The researchers were not able to measure quality of life scores for the disease-modifying therapies.   We also published a Research Roundup this week all about social media and the role it plays in science. Social media can sometimes work against the scient

[intro music]   Host – Dan Keller Hello, and welcome to Episode Eight of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.   This week’s podcast features an interview with researcher, Wendy Macklin, whose team studies myelination and demyelination in zebrafish and mouse animal models. But to begin, here is a brief summary of some of the topics we’ve been covering on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.   As listeners may already be aware, a new study suggested that infection with HIV is associated with a lower risk of developing MS. Researchers looked at a large sample of hospital records and found that individuals infected with HIV had a 62% lower risk of MS than HIV-negative individuals who were matched for age, gender, region, and socioeconomic status. The researchers think that antiretroviral drugs might be causing the protective effect, though it’s possible the infection with HIV itself somehow protects against developing MS. Antiretroviral drugs may at

[intro music]   Host – Dan Keller  Hello, and welcome to Episode Seven of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.   This week’s podcast features an interview with neurologist, Dr. Daniel Kantor. But to begin, here's a brief summary of some of the topics we’ve been covering on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.   At MSDF, we publish short, medium, and long articles. The longest News Synthesis articles cover an entire area of MS research. In one recent News Synthesis, science journalist Cynthia McKelvey, provided a primer on epigenetics. Epigenetic modifications are defined as any change to gene expression that happens without altering the  DNA sequence, and they could be the key to understanding heterogeneity in MS. Though the literature on the role of epigenetics in MS is growing, the field remains in its infancy and is not very well understood by many MS researchers and clinicians.   The medium-length articles we call New Findings, and they focu

[intro music]   Host – Dan Keller Hello, and welcome to Episode Six of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the Podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.   This week’s Podcast features an interview with Dr. Jeffrey Dunn, who explores the prospect of personalized medicine in MS. But to begin, here’s a brief summary of some of the topics we’ve been covering on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.   Recently, blogger Emily Willingham shared a person experience with MRI interpretation in our blog, MS Patient, Ph.D. She wrote, “I’ve come to realize in my various dealings with MRI reports that neuroradiologists are like economists; everyone has an opinion and no two readers will agree on what they see in exactly the same data.” Willingham, a developmental biologist, provides a unique view into the life of an MS patient. Her experiences bring a first-person perspective of MS, while her scientific background informs her insights in a way that many researchers and clinicians may find valuable.   We’

[intro music]   Host – Dan Keller  Hello, and welcome to Episode Five of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the Podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.    This week’s Podcast features an interview with Dr. Anne Cross, who reflects on the past year in MS research. But to begin, here’s a brief summary of some of the topics we’ve been covering on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.    Researchers have discovered that multiple sclerosis may have something in common with colon cancer; the Wnt pathway. It’s a genetic pathway important in development, stem cell maintenance, and cell differentiation. In colon cancer, the mutation of a mediator gene called APC causes the Wnt pathway to become overactive, leading to tumor formation. Now, researchers have discovered that a loss of function mutation of APC in the brain also leads to an overactive Wnt pathway, ultimately freezing oligodendrocyte progenitor cells in their undifferentiated state.    Next, what disease-modifying therapies should women

[intro music]  Host – Dan Keller   Hello, and welcome to Episode Four of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the Podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.  This week’s Podcast features an interview with Dr. Michael Racke about the potassium channel Kir4.1 and its potential role in MS. But to begin, here’s a brief summary of some of the topics we’ve been covering on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.    Researchers at the University of California San Francisco have developed a new remyelination assay that allows high through-put drug screening. The assay takes advantage of oligodendrocyte’s tendency to wrap myelin around anything axon-shaped, such as plastic fibers and microscopic glass pillars. The assay has already identified several FDA-approved drugs as candidates for remyelination therapies, including an over-the-counter antihistamine now in phase II clinical trials.   In another article, we report on a new study that sheds light on the ameliorating effect of ultraviolet rays on infl

[intro music]   Host – Dan Keller Hello, and welcome to Episode Three of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the Podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.   This week’s Podcast features an interview with investigators Daren Austin and Susan Van Meter of the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, who will discuss results from the MIRROR trial of ofatumumab, a human monoclonal antibody already FDA approved for leukemia. But to begin, here’s a brief summary of some of the topics we’ve been covering on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.   First, a complementary approach to treating MS. A new study lends support to the prevailing theory that the immune system’s ancient complement system drives persistent axon damage between MS relapses. The complement system consists of proteins that can activate innate and adaptive immune responses, but have a poorly understood role in autoimmune diseases. The new results suggest that anticomplement therapies might help prevent damage to axons. Clinical tri

Transcript of Episode 2 with Dr. Barbara Koppel   [intro music] Host – Dan Keller  Hello, and welcome to Episode Two of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the Podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller.  This week’s Podcast features an interview with Dr. Barbara Koppel, whose recent review of published studies concluded that certain forms of medical cannabis can be helpful in treating some symptoms of multiple sclerosis. But first, here is a brief summary of some of the topics we’ve been covering on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org.  First, predicting MS risk. Cardiologists can use the Framingham risk assessment tool to predict the likelihood that one of their patients will develop heart disease. But what about MS? Given that researchers have now found 110 genes related to MS risk, are we close to a formula that can predict who will develop MS and what course it will take? Disappointingly, the answer is probably not. Reporter Emily Willingham writes that “Decoding MS risk factors is less

Multiple Sclerosis Discovery: The Podcast of the MS Discovery Forum Transcript of Episode 1 with Dr. Timothy Vollmer [intro music] Host – Dan Keller Hello, and welcome to Episode One of Multiple Sclerosis Discovery, the Podcast of the MS Discovery Forum. I’m your host, Dan Keller. This week’s Podcast features an interview with Dr. Timothy Vollmer, who discusses strategies for maximizing brain health in people with MS. But first, here is a brief summary of some of the topics we’ve been covering on the MS Discovery Forum at msdiscovery.org. First, oral contraceptives. According to a retrospective study published in the journal Fertility and Sterility, women with relapsing remitting MS who used combined oral contraceptives tended to have less severe disease, and they were less likely to move on to secondary progressive MS. On the other hand, this study showed no association between oral contraceptives and annualized relapse rates or EDSS scores. An intriguing set of associations, but correlation does not imply c