BrainStorm Enrolls First Patients in Phase 3 Trial Evaluating NurOwn in ALS

Mindful Musings Amid Haircuts and Halloween

Quick! Guess where I was the other day? Hint: I spent quality time with a few ghosts, goblins and vampires. Nope, I didn’t visit a haunted house – I went for a haircut! You sure can’t tell from the outside, but where I go has an explosion…

Ipsen Shares New Dysport Data at Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Conference

Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals, an affiliate of Ipsen, announced that five abstracts discussing Dysport (abobotulinumtoxinA) were presented at the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPM&R) Annual Assembly, held Oct. 12-15 in Denver, Colorado. Dysport, a botulinum toxin product, is approved for treatment of spasticity, or shaking, in adult patients, which…

Study Links Immune Cell Numbers to Progression of ALS

Changes in the numbers of immune cells in the blood are associated with the progression of ALS, a study reports. Keeping tabs on the numbers could help doctors track the disease and researchers identify targets to develop treatments around, it said. The study, “Correlation of Peripheral Immunity…

The Positives and Negatives of Feeding Tubes in ALS

Although there’s no cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, managing it wisely can increase survival and improve patients’ and their families’ quality of life. One tool for managing it is a feeding tube. An article in the journal Neurology covered the pluses and minuses of using the tubes in ALS. It…

Cross-ethnic Genome Studies Link GPX3-TNIP1 Genes to ALS Development

A new genome wide association study (GWAS) conducted in multi-ethnic patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has demonstrated that the GPX3-TNIP1 gene locus is significantly associated with ALS. The study, “Cross-ethnic meta-analysis identifies association of the GPX3-TNIP1 locus with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,” was published in…

A Clinical Trial that’s Just My Style

During my last visit to the ALS clinic, my neurologist surprised me with an invitation to be a participant in a clinical trial that she was conducting. It was open to 50 of her patients, it could be completed in our own homes, and only it required…