This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Hi FF,
No problems...yeah...my head spins thinking about this whole thing.
NN

Hi Everybody,

I had the initial tests and blood draw yesterday, I was there about 3 1/2 hours. I find out my results by February 7th. It will be a long wait for me!

oo

Hi Bob,

I'm so glad your wife passed for the MRTC's, what a relief! They told me yesterday, that it is about 10 weeks after procurement.

If I have the positive MRTC's, they'll do the baseline MRI on Feb. 9th, then the procurement draw later in February likely. So it would possibly be mid-April for me to get my first vaccine if all goes well.

I wish your wife the best, and I hope she gets the real thing.

NHE wrote:One of the autoantigens used by Opexa to separate out myelin reactive T cells is myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein, also known as MOG. I'm not 100% certain, but I believe that this protein is specific to oligodendrocytes as compared to schwann cells. As oligondendrocytes are only found in the central nervous system (CNS) and not the peripheral nervous system, the use of MOG should help to isolate T cells which are targeting myelin in the CNS.

I remembered this post as I was reading the thesis I recently posted (not mine) on another thread:

Despite the long-standing assumption that MOG was the only CNS specific myelin protein, MOG mRNA expression was recently demonstrated in peripheral myelin although protein expression was not detected (Pagany et al., 2003).

I got my EDSS result, it was 2.5. Four years ago when starting another trial it was either 1.0 or 1.5... I hope this treatment does the trick and we can either stop that number from increasing or push it back a bit...

Oops, that was me, I wasn't signed in...

ewizabeth-- do you think the score they gave you is accurate? After reading some of the posts here, I got very concerned about the scores in this study being potentially inflated. I sure hope that's not the case!

Ewizabeth, my EDSS score is 3.0. My highest score yet! My EDSS has really increased in the last two years. I also really want something effective in the very near future!


I unfortunately believe that my score is accurate. I was a 2.5 on the EDSS the last time I was tested by my regular neuro. In between, I had a relapse and I got some residual damage from it which increased my EDSS score. Hence, I believe that the score of 3.0, from the neuro in the Tovaxin, study is correct.


Bob, I was also told that it would take at least 10 weeks to make the vaccine during my last appointment. Now, I'm just waiting and hoping that they will be able to make a vaccine for me.


I was also told that they couldn't tell me for sure if Opexa would be able to make a vaccine for me. When I asked if they had access to data about those who are already in the study, I was told that they couldn't give me that information. From reading about the people who are enrolled in the study and who are posting online, I haven't heard of anyone who was rejected after the procurement visit because Opexa wasn't able to make a vaccine for them. I would be curious to see if some of you asked questions or were told anything about the probabilities of Opexa not being able to make a vaccine after the procurement visit.
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FF,

Are you talking about the very first blood draw? They told me that one was to see if I could make the MRTC's; a preliminary screen if you will. After that they draw new blood for new vaccine manufacture. If you are past the screening draw and they have 'procured' your blood for vaccine manufacture, then I don't see why they couldn't make it.

I could be wrong in that I guess there could be a slim probability that between your screen and procurement something happened to your ability to make MRTC's, but I thought the initial screen was to qualify you and put you in the trial because they saw what they needed to see in your blood.

Send out the bat signal to Tim and see. I would imagine he could answer that better than I.

Lew

oo

Thanks Lew and Bob!

I'm not talking about the very first blood draw. I went for the "big" blood draw to make the vaccine more than a week ago. I guess I'm more concerned than most people after this step because I was negative for MRTC's the first time and positive for MRTC's the second time I was tested and I don't have a good understanding of why this happened. But, it seems that everyone isn't worried about being rejected at this point in the trial.


I might send Tim a brief PM tonight to see if he might have some information on this topic.

oo

Lyon wrote: I don't blame you although once you've produced the specific type of MRTC's they were looking for I was under the assumption that you were in like flint (even though I'm not sure what that saying really means?)
Bob

That's what I thought. But, the nurse in charge of the study told me that she couldn't tell me for sure whether or not Opexa would be able to make a vaccine for me. I would have to wait and see.

I'm probably (hopefully) just worrying for nothing and I'll be receiving my first vaccine (or a placebo) sometime at the end of March or early during the month of April.

oo