A new study has reported that nilotinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), alters brain dopamine metabolism and significantly reduces plasma total alpha-synuclein in patients with Parkinson’s disease (Pagan et al. Pharm Res Perspect 2019; epublished March 12, 2019; free full text at https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/prp2.470). Read More
Neurology
Polypharmacy common in MS patients
March 13, 2019A single-centre analysis in Germany has found that polypharmacy is common among MS patients, with 56.5% of patients reporting use of 5 or more medications (Frahm et al. Sci Rep 2019;9:3743; free full text at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6403326/pdf/41598_2019_Article_40283.pdf). Most patients were currently taking a disease-modifying therapy (DMT) for MS. Other medications commonly used were gastrointestinal drugs, thrombosis prophylaxis drugs, osteoporosis drugs, antihypertensives and sedatives. Read More
Benefits to early switching in MS: MSBase analysis
February 27, 2019The most recent analysis from the MSBase Study Group has examined how treatment decision-making affects the risk of conversion to secondary-progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) (Brown et al. JAMA 2019;321:175-187). The results indicate that starting with a higher-efficacy disease-modifying therapy (DMT) or switching earlier can substantially reduce the risk of SPMS. Read More
Hockey and head injury – report
February 6, 2019The Ice Hockey Summit III has published a list of action items to address the diagnosis, clinical care and prevention of sports-related concussion (Smith et al. Curr Sports Med Rep 2019;18:23-34). The report follows on guidelines on mild traumatic brain injury in children by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (Lumba-Brown et al. JAMA Pediatr 2018;172:e182853), and guidelines on the management of concussion by the American Academy of Neurology (Giza et al. Neurology 2013;80:2250-7). Read More
Two trials terminated in Alzheimer’s disease
January 31, 2019Roche has announced that it has terminated two phase III trials of crenezumab, a monoclonal antibody targeting beta-amyloid. The trials, CREAD 1 and CREAD 2, were evaluating the agent in prodromal to mild Alzheimer’s disease. Read More