The FDA Has Approved a Revolutionary New Treatment for Multiple Sclerosis – Futurism

In Brief Multiple Sclerosis is a chronic, inflammatory, autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that can cause a wide range of physical and neurological symptoms. A new FDA approved drug treatment hopes to change that. What Is Multiple Sclerosis?

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmunedisease that occurs when the bodys immune system attacks the protective myelin covering nerve cells. As the cells are stripped of their insulation, it causes inflammation which disrupts communication among cells in the nervous system. This can lead tomuscle weakness, poor coordination, bladder and bowel problems, vision impairment, and cognitive difficulties. MS is thought to affect as many as2.3 million people worldwide, including over 300,000 Americans. The average American has a 0.1% chance of developing MS.

The condition can take years to progress enough forsymptoms to bepresent, and is generally diagnosed between the ages of 20 50. But the disease can be very difficult to diagnose definitively: many patients may live with a probable diagnosis for years, if notdecades, before the disease is diagnosed definitively. The majority of known MS-cases are relapsing-remitting MS, where symptoms are intermittent and followed by periods of complete or partial recovery. 10% of known MS cases can develop into a more rapidly progressive form of the disease called primary progressive MS.There is no known cure for MS, and manyexisting treatmentsonly partially reduce symptoms, and dont necessarily halt disease progression. However, the approval of new drug calledocrelizumab might give some MS patients new hope.

After obtaining reassuring results from clinicalstudies, led by UC San Fransanciscos Stephen Hauser MD, the drug called Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) could be apromising new therapy. Like several other treatments for MS and other autoimmune diseases, Ocrevus is an infusion immunosuppressant drug. While most current MS drugs target T-cells, Ocrevus specifically targets a type ofB cellsthat researchers believe are instrumental in the destruction of myelin sheaths that leads to the development of MS.

The Phase III clinical trials for relapse-remitting MS indicated that the drug cut relapse rates by 47%, reduced disability by 43%, and decreased inflammation by 95%, compared to the current standard treatment. Most notably, the drug appeared to slow the advancement of progressive forms of the disease which have never before been seen in previous trials.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Ocrevus to treat MS patients. The drug originally developed by Genentech has been acquired by Roche.They hope the drug has the potential to change millions of lives; from patients who have already been diagnosed with MS, to those who are newly diagnosed.

Hausers research and the newly developed Roche drug highlights a new era of medicine. From cures throughgene editingto lasering cures, we are gradually becoming the masters of our own health.

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The FDA Has Approved a Revolutionary New Treatment for Multiple Sclerosis - Futurism