Publications by authors named "Mark Freedman"

Background: CLASSIC-MS explored long-term outcomes of patients treated with cladribine tablets.

Objective: Assess long-term efficacy in patients previously enrolled in ORACLE-MS, a Phase III parent trial.

Methods: ORACLE-MS included patients with a first clinical demyelinating event (FCDE or clinically isolated syndrome) who received ⩾1 course of cladribine tablets or placebo.

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Background And Objectives: Early treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) reduces disease activity and the risk of long-term disease progression. Effectiveness of ocrelizumab is established in relapsing MS (RMS); however, data in early RMS are lacking. We evaluated the 4-year effectiveness and safety of ocrelizumab as a first-line therapy in treatment-naive patients with recently diagnosed relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS).

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to assess how well certain biomarkers in blood (sNfL, sGFAP) and cerebrospinal fluid (cNfL, cGFAP) can predict long-term disability outcomes in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients after over 15 years of follow-up.
  • Results showed that while cNfL and cGFAP were good predictors of confirmed disability worsening (CDW), sGFAP was not effective on its own.
  • The combination of cNfL and cGFAP provided better predictions for CDW compared to either biomarker alone, suggesting these biomarkers could work together to indicate patient prognosis in MS.
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  • - The study aimed to see if structural network parameters provide additional insights into the effectiveness of MS treatment after immunoablation and autologous stem cell transplantation, focusing on patients whose relapses were suppressed.
  • - Researchers analyzed data from 24 MS patients before and after treatment, assessing brain health markers like N-acetylaspartate to creatine ratio (NAA/Cr) and serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) in relation to network parameters.
  • - Results showed that changes in network parameters post-treatment were significantly linked to improved measures of neuronal injury, suggesting these parameters could serve as valuable indicators of disease severity in progressive MS.
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Background: It is unknown whether people with aquaporin-4 antibody positive (AQP4-IgG+) neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) experience a prodrome, although a few cases report AQP4 + serology up to 16 years before the first attack.

Objectives: To evaluate whether individuals with AQP4-IgG + NMOSD have prodromal neurologic symptoms preceding the first attack.

Methods: We reviewed medical records of participants meeting the 2015 diagnostic criteria for AQP4-IgG + NMOSD from four demyelinating disease centres in the Canadian NMOSD cohort study CANOPTICS.

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Article Synopsis
  • A study investigated the possibility of a prodromal phase in aquaporin-4 antibody positive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody disease (MOGAD) using health data from Ontario, Canada.
  • The research involved comparing outpatient visits and hospitalizations of individuals with NMOSD and MOGAD to matched general population controls over five years prior to their first incident attack.
  • Results indicated that NMOSD patients had significantly higher healthcare use before their incident attack, suggesting a potential prodromal phase that could allow for earlier diagnosis and management of the condition.
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Diroximel fumarate (DRF), ozanimod (OZA) and interferon beta-1a (IFN) are disease-modifying therapies approved for the treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis. No randomized trials have compared DRF versus OZA and IFN. We compared DRF versus OZA and DRF versus IFN using matching-adjusted indirect comparisons for efficacy outcomes, including annualized relapse rate (ARR), 12- and 24-week confirmed disability progression (CDP) and absence of gadolinium-enhancing (Gd+) T1 lesions and new/newly enlarging T2 lesions.

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Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a clinically and biologically heterogenous disease with currently unpredictable progression and relapse. After the development and success of neurofilament as a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker, there is reinvigorated interest in identifying other markers of or contributors to disease. The objective of this study is to probe the predictive potential of a panel of brain-enriched proteins on MS disease progression and subtype.

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Article Synopsis
  • Early treatment with immunomodulating therapy improves short-term clinical outcomes in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, reducing the risk of conversion to clinically definite MS (CDMS) by 30.5%.
  • In a study of patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS), those who received early treatment demonstrated fewer relapses and maintained stable disability over 15 years compared to a delayed treatment group.
  • By the 15-year mark, 66.3% of patients treated early remained employed, further indicating the benefits of starting treatment early in the disease course.
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Significant advances have been made in the diagnosis and treatment of multiple sclerosis in recent years yet challenges remain. The current classification of MS phenotypes according to disease activity and progression, for example, does not adequately reflect the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms that may be acting in an individual with MS at different time points. Thus, there is a need for clinicians to transition to a management approach based on the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms that drive disability in MS.

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Introduction: Ocrelizumab is an approved intravenously administered anti-CD20 antibody for multiple sclerosis (MS). The safety profile and patient preference for conventional versus shorter ocrelizumab infusions were investigated in the ENSEMBLE PLUS study.

Methods: ENSEMBLE PLUS was a randomized, double-blind substudy to the single-arm ENSEMBLE study (NCT03085810), comparing outcomes in patients with early-stage relapsing-remitting MS receiving ocrelizumab 600 mg over the approved 3.

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Neurofilament proteins have been validated as specific body fluid biomarkers of neuro-axonal injury. The advent of highly sensitive analytical platforms that enable reliable quantification of neurofilaments in blood samples and simplify longitudinal follow-up has paved the way for the development of neurofilaments as a biomarker in clinical practice. Potential applications include assessment of disease activity, monitoring of treatment responses, and determining prognosis in many acute and chronic neurological disorders as well as their use as an outcome measure in trials of novel therapies.

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Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) negatively impacts cognition and has been associated with deficits in social cognition, including emotion recognition. There is a lack of research examining emotion recognition from multiple modalities in MS. The present study aimed to employ a clinically available measure to assess multimodal emotion recognition abilities among individuals with MS.

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Background: In REFLEX, subcutaneous interferon beta-1a (sc IFN β-1a) delayed the onset of multiple sclerosis (MS) in patients with a first clinical demyelinating event (FCDE).

Objectives: This analysis aimed to determine whether baseline serum neurofilament light (sNfL) chain can predict conversion to MS and whether correlations exist between baseline sNfL and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) metrics.

Methods: sNfL was measured for 494 patients who received sc IFN β-1a 44 μg once weekly (qw;  = 168), three times weekly (tiw;  = 161), or placebo ( = 165) over 24 months.

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Article Synopsis
  • - This study compared the effectiveness of autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) and natalizumab in patients with progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), highlighting that AHSCT did not significantly improve disability compared to natalizumab.
  • - Researchers matched 39 patients treated with AHSCT to 65 patients on natalizumab and found no significant differences in confirmed disability worsening or improvement over a period of up to 4 years.
  • - Although AHSCT had some complications like febrile neutropenia and serum sickness, there were no treatment-related deaths, but the results suggest AHSCT is not effective for controlling disability in progressive MS patients with advanced disability and low relapse activity. *
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Importance: Biomarkers distinguishing nonrelapsing progressive disease biology from relapsing biology in multiple sclerosis (MS) are lacking. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is an accessible fluid that most closely reflects central nervous system biology.

Objective: To identify CSF biological measures associated with progressive MS pathobiology.

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Four sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) receptor modulators (fingolimod, ozanimod, ponesimod, and siponimod) are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. This review summarizes efficacy and safety data on these S1P receptor modulators, with an emphasis on similarities and differences. Efficacy data from the pivotal clinical trials are generally similar for the four agents.

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Neurofilament light chain (NfL) is a long-awaited blood biomarker that can provide clinically useful information about prognosis and therapeutic efficacy in multiple sclerosis (MS). There is now substantial evidence for this biomarker to be used alongside magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and clinical measures of disease progression as a decision-making tool for the management of patients with MS. Serum NfL (sNfL) has certain advantages over traditional measures of MS disease progression such as MRI because it is relatively noninvasive, inexpensive, and can be repeated frequently to monitor activity and treatment efficacy.

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Background: Early serologic diagnosis and initiation of targeted therapy are associated with better outcomes in aquaporin-4 IgG positive (AQP4+) neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD).

Objective: To determine predictors of time to serologic diagnosis of AQP4+ NMOSD.

Methods: In CANOPTICS, a multi-centre, Canadian cohort study of NMOSD, we retrospectively evaluated time from the first clinical attack to first positive AQP4-IgG serology.

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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, progressive, inflammatory disorder of the central nervous system. Relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), the most common form of the disease, is characterized by transient neurological dysfunction with concurrent accumulation of disability. Over the past three decades, disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) capable of reducing the frequency of relapses and slowing disability worsening have been studied and approved for use in patients with RRMS.

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Background: Care partners provide essential care to those with multiple sclerosis (MS). Dyadic interventions promoting health behaviours have wide-reaching benefits for individuals with MS and their care partners. However, behavioural interventions to promote physical activity in patient-caregiver dyads have yet to be explored in an MS-specific context.

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Background: Many people with advanced multiple sclerosis (MS) and their care-partners do not engage in sufficient physical activity (PA) for health benefits. We developed "Physical Activity Together for MS (PAT-MS)", a 12-week dyadic behavioural intervention, to promote PA among these dyads. Herein, we evaluated the feasibility of PAT-MS before a definitive trial.

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Background: Diroximel fumarate (DRF) is approved for adults with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) in Europe and for relapsing forms of MS in the United States. DRF and dimethyl fumarate (DMF) yield bioequivalent exposure of the active metabolite monomethyl fumarate. Prior studies indicated fewer gastrointestinal (GI)-related adverse events (AEs) with DRF compared with DMF.

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