Nice to see some drug trials for secondary progressive MS. These are to see if these agents might be ‘ neuro-protective’ – ie, help to save nerve cells, in progressive MS. All drugs have potential side-effects, but amiloride is a fairly old, well known drug that’s been used for a long time for people with a heart condition.
Here’s the web page. Obviously, you need to get really well-informed, and have a very serious discussion about the pros and cons of the treatment and being on a trial, but here’s the website if you’re interested.
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Multiple Sclerosis – Secondary Progressive Multi-Arm Randomisation TrialThe MS-SMART Trial is starting in the autumn of 2013Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disabling and progressive neurological disease that affects approximately 100,000 people in the UK. The secondary progressive (SPMS) stage of disease results not in individual attacks but slow, cumulative and irreversible disability affecting walking, balance, vision, cognition, pain control and bladder and bowel function.
Critically, and unlike early disease, there is no proven treatment for the late stage of MS. This is therefore an urgent and major unmet health need. MS-SMART will evaluate three drugs (ibudilast, riluzole, amiloride) all of which have shown some promise in MS and in particular in SPMS against placebo (dummy drug). The assessments will take place over two years and will include clinical and MRI evaluations.
The main criteria for taking part are:
The MS-SMART trial is independent research awarded by the NIHR Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation Programme (EME) and funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Multiple Sclerosis Society (MS Society) and managed by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) on behalf of the MRC-NIHR partnership. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not those of the MRC, NHS, NIHR, MS Society or the Department of Health.
Are you interested in participating?MS-SMART will be looking for participants in the autumn. If you’re interested why not let us know?
A member of the MS-SMART research team will contact you to discuss the trial in more detail. We will contact you as soon as we can but you might not hear from us immediately. Progress will be updated on this website. |
Newscoming soon…
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mirandasmsblog 