MS Research Roundup: October 16, 2014

MS Research Roundup collects items of interest to multiple sclerosis researchers from around the Web. Send us your tips: tips@msdiscovery.org.

Brain in a Dish

A three-dimensional culture of human brain cells used to show the first direct causal link between the two main pathological features in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) may be adapted to study MS soon, say the researchers who created the model. A team led by Doo Yeon Kim, Ph.D., and Rudolph Tanzi, Ph.D., at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston created the model system. The researchers started with fetal neural stem cells treated to overexpress amyloid precursor protein and grew them in conditions to promote neuronal differentiation. The excess amyloid-β plaque was enough to trigger the neurofibrillary tangles that kill neurons. The findings, reported October 12 in Nature, were hailed by other AD researchers as a “giant step forward” and “a real game changer.” The system could serve as a way to screen drugs. Kim and his colleagues are refining the system to include a fuller set of neural cells. “We have astrocytes, neurons, and some oligodendrocytes,” Kim told MSDF in an interview. “We don’t have microglia. What we want to know is, if we add microglia, can we see a more robust recapitulation of AD pathology?” The refined system may also be able to reconstitute other neurodegenerative diseases, such as MS, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Some collaborators for other disease models stepped forward when Kim presented his results at a small conference before publication. He told MSDF he would welcome collaborators to make a similar model for MS. (Alzforum, New York Times, Nova Next)

New NICE Guidelines

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the United Kingdom overhauled its guidelines to improve treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis. The new guidelines aim to address misdiagnosis and inadequate care of MS patients in some areas of England and Wales. In a 2011 audit of care under the original 2003 guidelines, some patients reported going a year or more without medication or proper diagnosis after their first attack. Now, any patient with suspected MS must be referred to a neurologist for proper diagnosis, and MS cannot be diagnosed based on MRI results alone. The new guidelines also rejected the use of a cannabis-derived drug, nabiximols (Sativex, GW Pharmaceuticals). NICE rejected the cannabinoid based on evidence that the drug provided too little benefit at too high a cost—£50,000 ($80,270) per quality-adjusted life year. However, drug-spending authorities had already cleared Sativex for use in Wales, so the NICE guidelines affect only English patients. The Guardian described this event as reopening “the sort of ‘postcode lottery’ that NICE was set up to end, with MS patients in Wales able to use the drug on the NHS while those in England either have to buy it themselves or go without.” The guidelines also rejected the use of dalfampridine (Ampyra, Acorda Therapeutics), an immunomodulator, on the same grounds. NICE serves England and Wales, publishing guidelines on evidence-based, cost-effective care for various conditions. NICE is a public body of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS). (NICE, NHS, The Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Yorkshire Post)

Science Funding Squeezed

“There's a funding crunch for biomedical research in the United States—and it's not just causing pain for scientists and universities. It's also creating incentives for researchers to cut corners—and that's affecting people who are seriously ill.” So reported Richard Harris of National Public Radio in a seven-part series called Science Squeeze. The booming research funding system helped make the United States the leader in biomedical research, but a decade-long decline in funding has caused problems that cannot be solved by a cash infusion, Harris says. Focusing on the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), Harris explored the issues and their consequences for curing disease—innovative ideas that cannot get funded, highly trained scientists who cannot get jobs, oversold weak scientific findings, and patient-driven collaborations. He also explores potential solutions for the deep structural problems in the way research is financed. Misery has company. Last week, European scientists issued a warning about the impact of continuing austerity measures on the future of research in an open letter in Nature timed to coincide with protests by scientists in several European capitals. (National Public Radio, Nature)

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