MS Society research funding '16

The vascular connection to MS is reluctantly being acknowledged by mainstream neurological researchers. All you have to do is look at the latest batch of funding by the National MS Society. Many of the studies involve research we've discussed on this blog, and involve looking at this disease in a new way.

Here's the MS Society press release and announcement on their $25 million dollar research funding commitments. There is a link on this release to all of the funded studies:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-ms-society-invests-over-25-million-in-new-research-and-clinical-training-to-stop-multiple-sclerosis-restore-function-and-end-ms-forever-300245933.html

Some of the funded studies (with my prior blog posts linked below them)

Monitoring loss of gray matter in the thalamus
http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2016/01/thalamic-atrophy-and-ms-progression.html
Fibrinogen in the blood,
http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2015/10/a-single-drop-of-blood.html
The protective role of Vitamin D,
http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2015/12/vitamin-d-news-it-boosts-remyelination.html

Microvessels and circulation of the eye,
http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2012/03/vascular-health-and-brain-eyes-have-it.html
and "wellness strategies"
(pretty much most of this blog)

Looks familiar, right?  Certainly not ground-breaking or "cutting edge" research to those of us following the vascular connection for the past decade.

Sadly, there is no funded research on the newly discovered lymphatic system of the brain or the venous drainage of the CNS.  Nothing on the heart-brain axis or cardiovascular exercise. Nothing on nutrition. That's what I would call "cutting edge!"
But there is a shift which is happening, and it's very important to point this out.


There's a mention of funding research into "sparing important, protective parts of the immune system" in MS treatment---which seems to be an about-face from the second generation immune ablating and lymphocyte sequestering drugs recently foisted on people with MS---and actually admitting that the brain has an immune system and needs immune cells.


The latest "Second Generation MS drugs" destroy or inhibit the immune response in the CNS, leaving the brain unprotected. Immune cell "sparing" research comes a bit late for the thousands of people with PML, cancer or new autoimmune conditions from these drugs. MS drug treatment remains a $20 billion dollar a year industry, and the second generation drugs are far too profitable to shelve. They just all have black box warnings now. Thanks, FDA!

Here's what the NMSS says about these disastrous FDA approved drugs in their press release.


There are FDA-approved therapies that can impact the underlying disease course in people with the more common forms of MS. However, none of these can stop progression or reverse the damage to restore function.

That's right. They've done studies now on whether or not the drugs stop progression or restore function. And there is no empirical evidence that any of the new treatments do either. MS patients need to understand these facts. They are still peddling these FDA approved drugs with diasterous and deadly side-effects, because that's what they've got.

MS Societies---You really want to finish MS?

Look to the neurovascular connection: the endothelium, the lymphatic drainage system, the newly discovered CNS immune system, and the heart brain axis. Lots of researchers outside of neuroimmunology are doing just that.

These researchers could really use some funding.

You might want to check out their conference at the Academy of Sciences, near your headquarters in New York City, at the end of this month.

http://isnvd.org/newyork



Joan

BDNF, exercise and the vascular endothelium

Another new paper showing the vascular connection to MS.

New research shows that a 24 week resistance and endurance exercise program increases brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in people with MS.
link

At baseline, the BDNF concentration of persons with RRMS was 21% lower than healthy controls. Following 24 weeks of intervention, changes in BDNF concentrations differed significantly between exercise group and sedentary group.  In particular, within exercise group, BDNF concentrations increased 13.9% ± 8.8%, whereas it decreased 10.5% ± 4.1% within sendentary group. 

BDNF is called the "Miracle-Gro" for the brain.  It is a very important cerebrovascular protein which protects neurons and allows for neurogenesis, or the growth of new neurons.  BDNF is vital to learning, memory and executive function.

Lower levels of BDNF are linked to Alzheimer's, dementia, depression, diabetes---and now, Multiple Sclerosis.

Cardiovascular researchers have known that exercise increases BDNF levels for quite some time.  Why?  Because BDNF is created by healthy vascular endothelial cells.  Cardiovascular health allows for BDNF creation.  How?  Shear stress--which is caused by blood flow over the lining of our blood vessels--activates the endothelium, and allows for BDNF secretion.
An active, moving body with an active, pumping heart is essential to the brain.
link

When will the tipping point occur?  When will MS specialists refer to the vascular connection to Multiple Sclerosis and begin to look at the endothelium?  When will they prescribe cardiovascular fitness to their patients?   When will they change the dialogue, to include heart health?

Still waiting for them---but you don't have to.
Move as much as you are able.  Incorporate an exercise program, and increase your own BDNF levels today.

Joan

 

Boosting Immune Cells

Anne Kingston, reporter and senior writer at Maclean's Magazine, has just published a fantastic interview with pioneering neuroimmunologist Michal Schwartz.   I've recommended Dr. Schwartz's new book, Neuroimmunity: A New Science That Will Revolutionize How We Keep our Brains Healthy and Young, on this blog.  I'm thrilled that Anne not only read the book,  but got in touch with Dr. Schwartz and interviewed her, to learn even more.
http://www.macleans.ca/society/health/a-healthy-immune-system-is-the-key-to-a-healthy-mind/

I found this particular question especially insightful.

Anne Kingston: Your research indicates the immune system needs to be boosted, not suppressed. Doesn’t that run contrary to the immunosuppressant therapies routinely prescribed for many autoimmune diseases?

Dr. Schwartz: I’ve told everyone for a while to be careful when prescribing any anti-inflammatory drug for any neurodegenerative disease. They understand, but don’t have an alternative.

In other words, since there's nothing better, neurologists haven't changed their treatment target.  They understand that immune suppressing drugs (also known as anti-inflammatory) are keeping helpful immune cells away from the brain, but they don't have anything else they can prescribe which is FDA approved.  Here's more on the FDA pay to play system, which is maintaining the current $20 billion a year MS treatment industry.
http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-fda-and-multiple-sclerosis.html 

The last several years of research have directly questioned the current MS treatments.   Recent discoveries of the brain's lymphatic vessels and connection to the immune system and the neuroprotective role of immune cells.  The fact that the brain is not immune privileged and needs immune cells to repair the blood brain barrier.  The glaring fact that this immune cell and lymphatic cleansing system is relient on functioning venous drainage system  ---- in light of all of this research, the continued silence of the MS community is deafening.  They carry on as if nothing has changed, still prescribing immune cell sequestering and ablating medications, without a second thought.  They ignore vascular issues and the compounding evidence that cardiovascular lifestyle intervention can modify disease progression.   

Why?  They understand the science, but they don't have an FDA-approved alternative to sell MS patients.

Readers of this blog know that the current mouse model for MS, called experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is not an appropriate model for MS.  EAE it is initiated by injecting the mice with lots of stuff we certainly don't find in the CNS of humans with MS, in order to create an inflammatory reaction.

Did you know that the MS drug Copaxone was originally created in an attempt to CAUSE the animal model of MS?   It was formulated to give mice EAE?  That's right.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20106343 

Glatiramer acetate (GA) was created in a lab over 40 years ago to cause EAE.   It consists of four synthetic protein compounds combined together to replicate myelin basic protein (MBP.)  Myelin basic protein is what the immune system damages in MS.  So, the idea was, inject the animals with this myelin-like formulation, and the immune system would go to town and attack ---creating an MS-like disease process, and disabling the mice.

What actually happened, however,  was the exact opposite. The animals injected with GA could not develop EAE.  What happened was that this formulation did indeed activate t-cells and boosted an immune reaction,  but these t-cells were not damaging, they were protective.
http://www.jimmunol.org/content/186/4/1887.full.pdf

This is how Copaxone was developed to treat humans--what MS researchers like to call serendipity, I think is essential to understand.  Copaxone is not an immune ablating or suppressing drug, it is an immune boosting drug.

Glatiramer acetate, now called Copaxone, was created in a lab at the Weizmann Institute in Israel. Not coincidently, this is the same institute where Dr. Schwartz has been conducting her research.  It would be the discovery of how GA increased the body's t cells and protected axons which would coincide and overlap with her studies.

Boosting immune cells, instead of suppressing them, protects the central nervous system. 

Granted, we now know Copaxone is most certainly not a cure for MS.  Although it blocked EAE in mice, its longterm efficacy in humans with MS is more of a mixed bag.  But what the creation of Copaxone should have instigated, at least in mind, were questions regarding the long-term safety of serious immune ablating treatments for MS and the development of immune boosting and modulating treatments.

"They understand, but they do not have an alternative."

Let's continue to put pressure on MS researchers for alternatives.  For immune modulating treatments, for venous treatments, for cardiovascular therapies, for immune boosting treatments. It's vitally important to study the endothelium, the connection between the vascular and immune systems.

Until we understand more, please be careful with serious immune cell sequestering MS drugs (like Tysabri, Gilenya, Tecfidera) or immune ablating chemotherapies (like Campath and Lemtrada.)   Do everthing you can do to live your best vascularly, endothelially, heart-healthy life.

The research keeps coming in.  And we do not know what we do not know.

be well,
Joan