INDIANAPOLIS—Although many drugs have failed in clinical trials to provide benefits to patients with
progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), neurologists have
reason to be optimistic about the quest for effective
therapies, according to an overview presented at the
2015 CMSC Annual Meeting. Ongoing studies are investigating agents that appear to offer neuroprotection.
An international collaboration is helping to advance research into mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which may
promote remyelination. “There are lots of things we can
look at when we think about how we would approach
progressive MS,” said Alan J. Thompson, MD, consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology
and Neurosurgery in London.
Agents That May Offer Neuroprotection
One approach to providing neuroprotection is to block
sodium channels on the axon and on the microglia. This
technique has proven effective in animal models, but human trials have yielded mixed results. In 2010, Kapoor et
al randomized 120 patients with secondary progressive
MS to 400 mg of lamotrigine, a sodium-channel blocker, or placebo. At two years, participants who received
lamotrigine had greater cerebral volume loss than controls. Brain volume partly recovered when treatment was
stopped, however.
When the researchers performed a post hoc analysis
of their data, they made two observations that supported a benefit of lamotrigine. The first was that
Are Effective Therapies for
Progressive MS on the Horizon?
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