Stem Cell Research Yields Promising Results

A study done at the Northern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, has tweaked a treatment normally reserved for patients with progressive MS, for whom there weren't any other treatment options. Dr. Richard K. Burt used the modified technique for relapse remitting patients who were younger and did not respond to treatment from interferon.

Dr. Burt basically stripped the patient's body of immune cells and then repopulated it with stem cells from his/her bone marrow. Says Patricia O'Looney, vice president of biomedical research at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, "You're trying to wipe out the immune system and then, with one's own cells, reconstitute it with the hope that the new cells will not target myelin. That's the theory, get rid of bad cells and reconstitute it with new cells from one's own body so hopefully they haven't been triggered yet to attach to myelin." Essentially, Dr. Burt is rebooting the immune system. It sounds pretty ambitious.

But results have been encouraging. For all 17 patients, three years after the procedure was performed, no one's disease is progressing, 16 were no longer relapsing and some had experienced improvements. The findings will appear in the March issue of "The Lancet Neurology." Ever in the pragmatic frame of mind, specialists are holding celebration until further studies can be done.

"We need to see a larger number of samples... and [we need to] know if the benefit they're seeing is due to the immune system being reset or because the immune system has been suppressed and will return as the way it was," said O'Looney.

How Will the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Affect People With MS?

On February 17th president Barack Obama signed a $787 billion dollar piece of legislation called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The bill is intended to create or save millions of jobs and extend insurance benefits for millions of unemployed workers. Additionally, millions will go to energy efficiency programs and investment in renewable energy sources.



But how will the legislation affect people will MS? Various health programs will recieve federal funding, the breakdown is as follows:

1.) Additional funding for NIH: $10 billion to the National Institutes of Health for biomedical research and facilities improvements.
2.) Health Information Technology (HIT): $19 billion in funding to modernize the health care system by adopting new technological standards, which includes privacy and security laws for consumer protection.
3.) Medicaid/Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP): $87 billion over the next two years to help states maintain their Medicaid programs.
3.) COBRA Insurance: Expansion of coverage including a 65 percent subsidy covering premiums for up to 9 months.
4.) Aid to Seniors, Disabled and SSI Recipients: $250 to retirees, disabled individuals and SSI recipients receiving benefits from the Social Security Administration, Railroad Retirement and Department of Veterans Affairs.
5.) Vocational Rehabilitation: $500 million for state grants to help persons living with disabilities prepare for gainful employment.

Many of the new or expanded health care programs included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act seeks to make affordable and quality health care an integral part of overall economic growth and recovery. North Carolina is expecting to receive $6.1 billion from the $787 billion federal stimulus package, with $2.35 billion of it to help the NC provide Medicaid health insurance for low-income residents.

Cary Resident Prepares For Triangle Walk MS

Cary resident Trish Miller is preparing to participate in her fourth Triangle Walk MS. In recent years she has led teams to their fundraising goals which, for last year, was five-thousand dollars. She is involved in other ways with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's Eastern Chapter and is an integral part in realizing the vision of a world free of MS. She has experience with neurological diseases from an early age and has inspired others by having the courage to face her own challenges.
She talks about her involvement with Walk MS and what it means to her to be a part of the event. You can read her story by clicking on the title of this post.

State Rethinks Disability Language

A Greensboro Democrat, Sen. Katie Dorsett, has proposed a bill which suggests a change in how the state refers to "the disabled" or "people with disabilities." What may at first seem to be a semantic detail not worth the legislative toil required to make it law, could also be viewed as a progressive review of the way we think about, and therefore, refer to individuals in our society who are different due to the effects of a disease or disorder.

Sen. Dorsett's claim is that the reference, in its traditional use, uses a primary trait to identify an individual as opposed to acknowleding their personage (humanity) first. Here's another example: people who reside in the US illegally are habitually referred to 'illegals.' The label precedes the person.

Dorsett says, "Certain terms are demeaning and create an invisible barrier to inclusion as equal community members."

Merck and Novartis Battle Over Oral Medication Worth 1.3 Billion

There has been talk of an oral medication being able to treat Multiple Sclerosis with results better than those achieved by costly injections and infusions. Now Merck, of Darmstadt, Germany, and Novartis, of Basel, Switzerland are asking regulators to approve two new drugs for market this year.

Other pharmaceutical companies such as Teva Pharmaceutical, Biogen Idec and Sanofi-Aventis are also in the running for an oral treatment. However, according to an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, a London based investment research and asset management firm, their treatments may not reach market to 2012. For Merck, there is an added pressure for successful launch of the drug. It's drug Rebif, with a reported revenue of 1.57 billion in 2007, will lose patent protection in 2012. It has said that the new oral tablet could be its next "1-billion-a-year" seller.

Merck's oral medication is called Cladribine and Novartis' goes by Fingolimod. Both pills will need to overcome saftey concerns before they can be approved. The drugs lower the amount of immune cells in the body which could leave the body vulnerable to infection. Cladribine is also used as a treatment for Leukemia. Patients who took the drug did so only in the short term, MS patients would be on the medication for much longer. It is these long term side effects which are unclear. Final tests are to be completed later this year. Bruno Musch, head of the global clinical development unit for neurodegenerative diseases at Merck, has said that there wasn't "anything in the study that could prevent the drug from being given to patients."

This video discusses the potential benefits of the new drug from its phase II clinical trials. It has since been approved for further testing. Merck and Novartis will seek approval to market the drug this year.

Old TB Drug is New MS Treatment

In addition to an oral medication that may soon be available for people with MS and the first reversal of multiple sclerosis symptoms using stem cell research, John Hopkins' scientists have found that an old Tuberculosis drug called Clofazimine inhibits the molecular pathway from the cell exterior to the nucleus. This is how a cell generates an immune response. In the case of people with multiple sclerosis, an auto-immune response.

Clofazimine's history goes back before the 1900's when it used against TB. Scientists at the University have recently discovered that the drug blocks the activity of the Kv1.3 channel and in turn inhibits the activity of other signaling pathways. By interferring with cell signaling the drug induces an inhibited auto-immune response in patients with neurological diseases and, in the case of MS patients, a decreased attack on the myelin sheath surrounding the neuron.

Senate Compromises May Decrease Medicaid Funding

Deliberations in the Senate, over the size and composition of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, have resulted in a loss of 40 billion dollars from the state stabilization fund. This particular fund allocates money to individual states for the purpose of creating new jobs and managing budget deficits.

If the legislation passes with the 40 billion deduction included, North Carolina will receive less than the amount originally intended, which was 1 billion dollars. Spending cuts at the federal level trickle down to state budgets and, in the coming weeks, North Carolina will be considering programs where cuts may be necessary.

Medicaid programs are among those that could potentially see a drop in funding. The Health and Health Services Subcommittee on Appropriations will be looking to cut between 400-500 million from the HHS budget.