REPORT FROM ECTRIMS – BARCELONA, SPAIN – OCTOBER 7-10, 2015 – The much-anticipated results of the OPERA I and II studies of ocrelizumab in relapsing MS were presented on Friday and indicate that the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody is highly effective compared to interferon-beta-1a s.c. (Hauser et al. ECTRIMS 2015; abstract 190). Read More

REPORT FROM ECTRIMS – BARCELONA, SPAIN – OCTOBER 7-10, 2015 – Benign MS is typically defined as EDSS < 3 at 10-15 years post-diagnosis, and there is considerable debate about how benign the disease course really is if long-term cognitive as well as physical disability is taken into account. Read More

REPORT FROM ECTRIMS – BARCELONA, SPAIN – OCTOBER 7-10, 2015 – A number of novel therapies that target inflammation and/or neurodegeneration in MS are currently being investigated. Among them is MEDI-551, a B-cell directed monoclonal antibody that depletes CD19+ B cells. Unlike CD20+ (targeted by ocrelizumab and ofatumumab), CD19+ is expressed throughout B cell maturation, from pro-B cells to early plasma cell stages. Read More

REPORT FROM ECTRIMS – BARCELONA, SPAIN – OCTOBER 7-10, 2015 – A recent longitudinal study investigated whether MS patients with ongoing disease activity while on treatment had different clinical, radiological and neuropsychological outcomes at one year compared to those with no evidence of disease activity (NEDA), defined as no relapses, no three-month EDSS progression and no new MRI activity (Nygaard et al. PLoS One 2015;10:e0135974; free full text at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4539191/pdf/pone.0135974.pdf).

Overall, 46% of treated MS patients had evidence of disease activity and demonstrated EDSS progression (+0.4 points). In contrast, NEDA patients showed a slight improvement in EDSS scores (-0.3 points), which may be due to an absence of relapse-related short-term disability. Cognitive function was stable in both groups but patients with disease activity had a significantly higher rate of subcortical grey-matter (GM) atrophy compared to healthy controls. Read More