Active clinical trials for "Sclerosis"

This study assesses clinical and imaging long-term data, after early or delayed interferon-beta-1b treatment in patients with a first demyelinating event suggestive of multiple sclerosis (MS), 11 years after enrollment in the Betaferon/Betaseron in Newly Emerging Multiple Sclerosis for Initial Treatment (BENEFIT) study (304747). The main objectives are to describe the disease course, change in disability, cognitive function, resource use and employment status, in relation to Interferon beta-1b in the long term.

The primary objective of this study is to demonstrate a pharmacodynamic effect of CK 2017357 on measures of skeletal muscle function or fatigability in patients with ALS.

Systemic sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune connective tissue disorder with no universally accepted disease modifying regimen. Recruiting patients for systemic sclerosis treatment studies is difficult due to the limited availability of such patients and furthermore the use of a placebo arm is often deemed unethical due to the poor survival of diffuse systemic sclerosis patients. Long-term controlled trials examining functional outcomes and survival from novel therapeutic agents for systemic sclerosis are often difficult to undertake because of costs, rarity of the disease and ethical issues with the use of a true placebo. Open label single center studies while inferior to multicenter placebo controlled studies, have helped establish the benefits of certain pharmaceutical agents in systemic sclerosis, and while not universally accepted as disease modifying agents, have been used with some success to treat systemic sclerosis. The hypothesis on which we are basing this study is that an endothelin receptor antagonist and disease modifying agent with antifibrotic properties will have additive influence on fibrosis, inhibit cellular and humoral hyperactivity and interfere with smooth muscle proliferation in the vessel wall. The combination of these two agents will also be the first regimen to address the heterogeneity of scleroderma manifestations including ILD, pulmonary arterial hypertension and skin manifestations

The ACCLAIM study is testing whether the medication "abatacept" can be of benefit to patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS). Although abatacept is an investigational medication for MS, it is not a new drug. Abatacept has been approved by the FDA to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

This was a phase 2a study of MLN1202 to determine safety, tolerability and initial efficacy in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). It was conducted in 2 dose cohorts enrolling a total of 50 patients. Efficacy was assessed by comparing the numbers of new gadolinium-enhancing brain lesions during the screening and treatment periods.

This study will evaluate the effect of treatment with fingolimod on the immune response following seasonal influenza vaccination and tetanus booster injection in patients with relapsing MS.

Despite the need for cognitive rehabilitation, there is a paucity of well-designed research studies to investigate treatment approaches or their effectiveness in MS. Most of published studies suffer from significant methodological flaws including small sample size, short follow-up periods, and lack of specific outcome criteria to determine improvement. O'Brien et al. (2008) recently reviewed 16 studies of cognitive rehabilitation designed to persons with MS and found only 4 class I studies and only one class I study of rehabilitation of attention deficits. Methodologically rigorous research is needed to confirm the preliminary results reported by these studies and determine the effectiveness and efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation interventions in attention deficits in MS. O'Brien et al. listed limitations found in previous studies that must be addressed in future studies. The present study was designed according to these recommendations. It is a randomized, controlled study, in parallel groups, evaluator blinded. Number of participants: 25 RRMS patients in the active group, 25 RRMS patients in the control group and 25 healthy subjects. The protocol will be proposed to RRMS patients AFFILIATED TO FRENCH SOCIAL SECURITY referred to the investigators center by practicing neurologists and fulfilling the inclusion criteria for screening. Patients will be randomised between two groups. The active group (25 patients) will be treated by rehabilitation. Individual rehabilitation procedures will be focused on attention, executive functions and IPS. The program will be tailored to each patient cognitive status depending on the impairments identified during the initial assessment while maintaining a systematic work on attention and executive functions. A total of 50 sessions lasting one hour at a rate of 3 sessions per week for a total period of 4 months will be proposed. Patients randomized in the other group will participate to group session every week without specific cognitive rehabilitation. 25 healthy control subjects (group C), matched to patients for education, gender and age with patients of groups A/B will have the same evaluation procedures than patients. Evaluation will be performed at baseline, after 4 months (end of treatment period) and after 8 months. Evaluation will include clinical testing, cognitive battery (paper/pencil and computer tests), cognitive ecological evaluation (Computer test of attention in a virtual reality environment and driving test on a driving simulator), questionnaires about daily life and MRI (fMRI and MRI). All patients and healthy subjects will undergo the fMRI protocol using a paradigm previously published by the investigators group (Bonnet et al., 2009): Go/No-go paradigm with increasing difficulty during four successive conditions (the Tonic Alertness task, Go/No-go (IG), reversal Go/No-go (RG), and complex Go/No-go (CG). In a previous study the investigators observed compensatory activation in MS patients as compared to healthy controls for the three first conditions and a saturation of compensatory processes for the more complex. In the present study, the investigators hypothesize that a similar pattern will occur at baseline and that cognitive rehabilitation will improve brain compensation at the fourth level of complexity.

Ofatumumab is a novel Immunoglobulin 1ĸ ( IgG1ĸ) lytic monoclonal antibody (mAb) that specifically binds to the human Cluster of Differentiation 20 (CD20) antigen of which expression is restricted to B lymphocytes from the pre-B cell stage to the plasmacytoid immunoblast stage only. A recent trial with an anti-CD20 mAb (rituximab) demonstrated that targeting B-cells reduces the number of gadolinium-enhancing (GdE) T1 lesions and the relapse rate in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Ofatumumab has been shown to be both well tolerated and efficacious in several indications, including a small, placebo-controlled trial in RRMS using an intravenous (IV) formulation. This double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study will investigate the safety and efficacy of a subcutaneous formulation of ofatumumab in the treatment of subjects with RRMS. The primary objective of the study is to investigate the efficacy as assessed by magnetic resonance imaging. Other objectives will include evaluation of tolerability/safety, dose-response relationship, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, exposure-response, as well as other clinical endpoints.

The study will assess the long-term safety and tolerability of AIN457 in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). In addition the long-term pattern of maintenance of efficacy and health related quality of life will be explored.

The purpose of this study is to compare the safety and efficacy of masitinib 6 mg/kg/day versus placebo in the treatment of patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis or relapse-free secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.