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Report about a new monoclonal antibody (MAB): Ublituximab Completely Reduces MS Lesions. It seems that is a anti-CD20 MAB, that reduces B-cells amount, similar to Rituxan and Ocrelizumab.

https://journals.lww.com/neurotodayonli ... ?PostID=10

LISBON, Portugal—In early trial results, the investigative agent ublituximab completely reduced brain lesions in patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis treated up to 48 weeks, researchers reported here at the Congress of the European Academy of Neurology.

The primary endpoint of the phase 2 study was to determine if treatment with ublituximab reduced levels of B cells. Ublituximab is a novel glycoengineered antiCD20 monoclonal antibody.

For the study, 48 patients were included in six different cohorts of eight patients each; the patients were about 40 years old; most were women who had been diagnosed with MS for about eight years.Twelve patients were assigned to placebo to assess safety data but switched to the active agent after one month.

One woman dropped out of the study due to pregnancy; another patient withdrew from the trial, reported Edward J. Fox, MD, PhD, FAAN, clinical associate professor of neurology at the University of Texas Dell Medical School in Austin.

“In all the patients and in all of the cohorts we saw a 99 percent reduction in B cells, so by week four there is an almost complete reduction of circulating CD20 cells counts,” Dr. Fox said.

Of the 14 patients who completed the 48-week study, “no gadolinium enhancing lesions were detected in any subjects,” he said. Of the 46 patients who completed the 24-week evaluation on the antiCD20 monoclonal antibody, there was also a complete absence of T1 gadolinium-enhancing lesions compared to a mean of 3.80 lesions at baseline, a difference that was statistically significant, Dr. Fox said in his oral presentation.

The study looked at various doses of ublituximab as well as various infusion times. Most of the patients were able to tolerate a one hour infusion treatment.

The agent was well tolerated, Dr. Fox said. Three patients reported severe fatigue and one person experienced a severe upper respiratory infection. Twenty patients reported 41 infusion reactions, all of which were determined to be mild or moderate. There were no drug-related discontinuations from the study, he said. No deaths occurred during the study, he noted. The safety results represent about 11 months of follow-up.

“The data safety monitoring board has reviewed safety labs and adverse events for all subjects, and has not found any laboratory abnormalities or safety signals that would warrant a change in protocol,” Dr. Fox said.

Commenting on the trial, Ralf Gold, MD, PhD, chairman of the department of neurology at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, told the Neurology Today Conference Reporter: “These were interesting first results with this new compound ublituximab, but we really must wait for results from larger randomized studies to determine if these initial good outcomes are maintained. Once we see those results we will have to determine where this agent will fit into the treatment of people with multiple sclerosis,” Dr. Gold said.”.

So does it work on "SPMS" too? Can it be used in combination with Biotin?

My 65th birthday is coming up. My telomeres are getting short. I am running out of brain stem cells. Is there any hope?

BTW my significant other is making me a neck cooler. What you do is empty the silica gel packages that comes in little bags in a lot of prescription bottles, into a home made neck thingy that is just two strips of cloth with compartments sewn into it for the silica crystals. To use them you soak the whole thing in cold water, and when all the wet crystals have expanded and the neckerchief is bloated and full of water, your wrap it around your neck. It will keep you cool for hours.

Silica gel crystals are hydrophilic. That means they love water. They soak it up until they are bloated. It's like wearing a wet rag around your neck that takes a long time to dry out.

Whatever you do, don't breathe them or ingest them in any way. Try not to even touch them. You won't like it, guaranteed. You are mostly water.

I like cycling because the wind blows and cools me even on a hot day. If you wear a neck cooler you can cycle in the hot sun.

Also BTW, I am now trying out a collapsible cane! i was kind of walker-bound. I got tired of having to stay on my tricycle once I had reached a destination. I am going to try using it on a bike trip once I feel a bit more comfortable walking with it. Have to buy a really good lock. Anybody have suggestions?

Another BTW, Dr. Zamboni and fellow researchers have found it takes 15-20 seconds after a body posture change, for brains in MS to stabilize their circulation. That means if you try to walk immediately after standing up, you will probably fall down, with potentially injurious effect. So wait 20 seconds. This relates to me after I get off a recumbent tricycle. Especially when I am going to try using a cane. This goes for any cane use after getting up from sitting down. This advice is not just for MS. My brother is a heart patient, and he has the same problem. Wait 20 seconds.

1eye wrote:Silica gel crystals are hydrophilic. That means they love water. They soak it up until they are bloated. It's like wearing a wet rag around your neck that takes a long time to dry out.

Whatever you do, don't breathe them or ingest them in any way. Try not to even touch them. You won't like it, guaranteed. You are mostly water.

I put some in some water once. Nothing happened. The crystals stayed hard and did not expand.

In contrast, PGX from Natural Factors absorbs quite a bit a water to form a gel matrix. I don't know how it would work in a cooling garment though.

NHE wrote:

1eye wrote:Silica gel crystals are hydrophilic. That means they love water. They soak it up until they are bloated. It's like wearing a wet rag around your neck that takes a long time to dry out.

Whatever you do, don't breathe them or ingest them in any way. Try not to even touch them. You won't like it, guaranteed. You are mostly water.

I put some in some water once. Nothing happened. The crystals stayed hard and did not expand.

In contrast, PGX from Natural Factors absorbs quite a bit a water to form a gel matrix. I don't know how it would work in a cooling garment though.

You're right! They don't do anything, so don't even bother trying. On the other hand, you can probably pick up the real thing for cheap.

From https://www.teachersource.com/product/w ... /chemistry

These crystals are made from a super-absorbent polyacrylamide polymer. Placed in water, they absorb many hundreds of times their own weight and become virtually invisible. Tie a thread around an expanded crystal, drop it into a glass of water and your crystal seems to disappear! For an additional effect, push a toothpick through the suspended gel. The toothpick seems to mysteriously float in the center of the suspended loop of thread. The index of refraction of the expanded crystals is almost identical to that of water. They can be colored by placing them in a mixture of water and food coloring before expanding them.

It's also called SoilMoist (TM) and costs about $10 on Amazon. MiracleGro is a company that sells soil mixed with it. They claim it's biodegradable, but I know these neckerchiefs made with it last years. So don't go emptying your silica gel packages that come with your pills. They won't work for anything. My mistake. Sorry. Thanks for saving me a lot of work...