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Raising urate levels in Parkinson’s disease: the SURE-PD study

 

A new study has investigated the safety and tolerability of administering inosine, a urate precursor, in patients with early untreated Parkinson’s disease with baseline levels of urate below normal median of 6 mg/dL. In the SURE-PD (Safety of Urate Elevation in PD) trial, 75 subjects (mean age 62 years) received inosine or placebo for up to 24 months (Parkinson Study Group SURE-PD Investigators et al. JAMA Neurol 2014;71:141-150).  Inosine dosing was titrated to produce mildly (6.1-7.0 mg/dL) or moderately (7.1-8.0 mg/dL) elevated serum urate levels; the maximum dose of inosine was 500-1000 mg TID. Read More

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Endovascular trials in ischemic stroke: an update

 

REPORT FROM THE 67TH AMERICAN ACADEMY OF NEUROLOGY (AAN) ANNUAL MEETING – WASHINGTON DC, APRIL 18-25, 2015 – The use of tissue plasminogen activators (tPA) in patients with ischemic stroke is limited by the narrow therapeutic time window, and poor efficacy in opening proximal occlusions of the major intracranial arteries. Intraarterial interventions, such as thrombectomy with mechanical devices, are potentially useful but studies to date have produced mixed results, in large part because of trial design and patient selection.

A series of recent studies have attempted to clarify the role of thrombectomy post-stroke, and these were summarized in an invited science session hosted by the AAN in conjunction with the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association (AAN 2015; S54). Read More

MS therapies: longer-term results

 

REPORT FROM THE 67TH AMERICAN ACADEMY OF NEUROLOGY (AAN) ANNUAL MEETING – WASHINGTON DC, APRIL 18-25, 2015 – A number of new studies at AAN 2015 presented longer-term data on the use of second-generation disease-modifying therapies for MS. The following is a summary of key studies: Read More

Anti-LINGO-1 MAb in optic neuritis: RENEW results

 

REPORT FROM THE 67TH AMERICAN ACADEMY OF NEUROLOGY (AAN) ANNUAL MEETING – WASHINGTON DC, APRIL 18-25, 2015 – BIIB033 is a monoclonal antibody targeting LINGO-1 (leucine-rich repeat and immunoglobulin domain-containing neurite outgrowth inhibitor receptor-interacting protein-1), which is expressed on neurons and oligodendrocytes and which impedes oligodendrocyte differentiation and myelination.

No serious adverse events were reported in phase I testing (Tran et al. Neurol Neuroimmunol Neuroinflamm 2014;1:e18). Read More