MS Frontier's Meeting

In response to the comment "Did you attend MS Frontiers? Any positive news?": 


"Yes, I attended and enjoyed it very much. Unfortunately, because of parallel sessions I could not attend all the talks I wanted to.  The following are my highlights:


1. Dr Jeremy Chataway; good news the MS Society's clinical trial network is well advanced in their plans to start a neuroprotection trial in progressive MS. The trial will be called the MS-STOP trial and will hopefully start late 2012 or early 2013, 
2. Professor Siddharthan Chandran; University of Edinburgh, presented the phase 1 results of the MRC-funded mesenchymal stem cell trial. It is safe and feasible to do a trial of this nature. 
3. Dr Stephen Sawcer, Professor George Ebers and Prof. Gavin Giovannoni; all spoke on gene-environment interactions. We all agreed that MS is complex disease and we are getting  closer to defining the causal pathway. This is important to target therapies and more importantly to prevent MS. 
4. Katie Lidster presented a new animal model of optic neuritis. This will be very important in testing strategies to target focal inflammation and its consequences. 
5. Inocencio Maramba presented an update on the MS Register; there are close to 5,000 subjects registered. This is excellent news. 
6. Giulio Disanto presented a paper on infectious mononucleosis (IM), sex ratios and MS in the UK. Interestingly, there was significant correlation between MS and IM sex ratios and latitude and MS Sex ratio. More data to support the link between MS and EBV, which causes IM."