BioMS announces lead investigator in US phase III MS trial of MBP8298
Submitted by art on Wed, 2007-05-09 06:53.
BioMS, a leading supplier of press releases to the MS community, just announced they've got a lead investigator for the pivotal phase III clinical trial in the US, named MAESTRO-03. It will be a randomized, double-blind study enrolling approximately 510 people who will be administered either MBP8298 or placebo intravenously every six months for a period of two years. Dr. Markowitz is Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and will be leading this trial in the US.
Hah!
"leading supplier of press releases to the MS community..." Now that, my friend, is comedy, as dry as the Sahara.
:-) I was wondering if
:-) I was wondering if anyone would notice that...
***
Art Mellor, Accelerated Cure Project for MS, art-msnews -at- acceleratedcure.com
mitochondrial disease
I would like to know if ms is a mitrochondrial disease?
mitochondrial disease
It does not appear that MS is a strictly inherited mitochondrial disease like Leber's, MELAS or MERRF -- for one thing, mitochondria are passed from mother to child, but in MS there are affected father-child pairs. However, it may be that mitochondrial genetic variants may be one of several factors that influence the risk of MS. Here's a paper that I wrote that summarizes the genetic research on this topic here.
It is also possible that mitochondrial function in oligodendrocytes and axons in MS lesions is impaired by the presence of inflammation-associated compounds such as nitric oxide or reactive oxygen species, and that this impairment leads eventually to cell injury and/or death. The first couple of paragraphs of these papers describe how these toxic compounds might be involved in MS here and here.
mitochondrial disease
Hollie, one of the abstracts you refer to states: "Progressive axonal loss in MS may stem from a cascade of ionic imbalances initiated by inflammation, leading to mitochondrial dysfunction and energetic defects that result in mitochdrial and cellular Ca2+ overload." It has been claimed that calcifying nano-particles [ some call them nano- bacteria] which are small enough to pass through the BBB, oxidise metals[ magnesium is often depleted in MS patients]and multiply slowly, actually produce a lipopolysaccaride biofilm that induces the inflammatory cascade and cause mitochondrial disfunction. Is any reputable research being done to confirm or refute these claims? And are any therapies known to inhibit these little buggers?
mitochondrial disease
Apolgies! I should'nt use olde English words like "buggers" here. Please delete and replace with "critters". However,the seriousness of my question still stands.
Nanobacteria
I don't have any special insights into the current status of this research, although from doing an Internet search it seems as though there's plenty of controversy surrounding what these things are. It also seems as though there are already companies trying to market "treatments" for them. I guess I'll reserve my judgment for now. At any rate, I don't know of anyone who's looking at nanobacteria in the context of MS.
mitrochondrial disease
Not only nitric acid (which paradoxically can also be neuroprotective) and free radicals, but glutamine is known to be neurotoxic in high concentrations. Mitrochodrial dysfunction can definitely contribute to inflammation, since the mitrochondia are basically little bio-furnaces.