Media Coverage

The Free Library reported on UB research that suggested people with the advanced form of multiple sclerosis (MS) called secondary progressive MS who took the drug siponimod for one to two years had improved cognitive processing speed compared to those who did not take the drug. “Multiple sclerosis is a neurodegenerative disease, meaning neurons in the brain can break down or die, and this can greatly affect a person's thinking skills,” says study author Ralph H. Benedict, PhD, professor of neurology.

Not only can sleep apnea lead to restless nights, it can also be dangerous. Sleep apnea comes about when a person has a difficult time breathing while sleeping. Daniel I. Rifkin, MD, clinical assistant professor of neurology, is the founder and CEO of Ognomy — a company that has shifted the diagnosis and care of sleep apnea outside of the clinical setting. Typically, people who are experiencing signs of sleep apnea are told to visit a sleep center, where they are monitored overnight. But Ognomy has found a way to perform monitoring from a person’s home.

Healio reports on a UB study finding that the drug gabapentin may be more effective than standard therapy for treating severe nausea and vomiting in pregnant women. The story quotes lead author Thomas J. Guttuso Jr., MD, professor of neurology. “This is the first randomized controlled trial showing a therapy to significantly reduce nausea and vomiting and improve oral nutrition in patients with hyperemesis gravidarum. Furthermore, patients receiving gabapentin were significantly more satisfied with their treatment than patients receiving standard-of-care therapy.”

New research on Alzheimer’s disease reveals strong evidence that clinical trials on drugs that appeared not to benefit patients with the disease should now be reanalyzed in light of discoveries about a human-specific gene that divides the population into a one-to-three ratio. “For Alzheimer’s, if we can treat 25 percent of patients, that is 1.5 million people,” says Kinga Szigeti, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurology and director of UB’s Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorders Center. “That would be a major advance.”

An article reports on UB research that questions whether potential Alzheimer’s treatments previously found to be ineffective in human trials should be re-examined following the discovery that a specific gene that can inhibit a therapy’s efficacy is present in 75 percent of people. The story quotes Kinga Szigeti, MD, PhD, a corresponding author on the study, associate professor of neurology and director of the Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorders Center at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “This system that we created models the 25 percent of patients who could respond to the cholinergic drugs that supposedly failed in clinical trials, and contrasts them with the 75 percent whom likely will need a different approach,” Szigeti said.

Medpage Today quoted Gil I. Wolfe, MD, UB Distinguished Professor and the Irvin and Rosemary Smith Chair of neurology, about reports of some people developing myasthenia gravis after being infected with COVID-19. “Although not as well established or reported as the link between infections — that now includes SARS CoV-2 worldwide —- and Guillain-Barré syndrome, such a connection has also been observed with MG,” he said.

As the pandemic continues, many people wonder how COVID-19 would impact them, especially for those with pre-existing conditions. Gil I. Wolfe, MD, UB Distinguished Professor and Irvin and Rosemary Smith Chair of the Department of Neurology, and his co-authors conducted an intensive literary review of COVID-19 and people with neuromuscular conditions. It is being published in the RRNMF Neuromuscular Journal. Wolfe and his co-authors believe that people with neuromuscular conditions should be considered high risk for COVID-19.

An article reports on Ognomy, a sleep medicine app that will allow certain providers to examine patients by computer or smartphone, ship them sleep study equipment if necessary and arrange treatment if the study confirms sleep apnea. The app’s creators include Daniel I. Rifkin, MD, clinical assistant professor of neurology.

A group of researchers has published a paper in Neuron that clarifies certain cellular mechanisms that could lead to improved outcomes in patients with globoid cell leukodystrophy, commonly known as Krabbe disease. The disease is a progressive and fatal neurologic disorder that usually affects newborns and causes death before a child reaches the age of 2 or 3. The research was led by Lawrence Wrabetz, MD, and M. Laura Feltri, MD, both professors of biochemistry and neurology.

Gil I. Wolfe, MD, UB Distinguished Professor and Irvin and Rosemary Smith Chair of neurology, is among neurologists who adopted new biological treatment standards after the COVID-19 pandemic swept into the United States. Wolfe — who has expertise in myasthenia gravis and multiple sclerosis — has modified or delayed protocols that involve anti-B cell therapies, which reduce the number of white blood cells called B lymphocytes that make antibodies to battle infections, including COVID-19. Wolf says that those with an autoimmune disorder should talk with their doctors about how the novel coronavirus might impact treatment.

Neurovascular Diagnostics co-founders include entrepreneur Jeff Harvey; Hui Meng, PhD, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, who holds appointments in the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Neurosurgery; Vincent M. Tutino, PhD, research assistant professor of pathology and anatomical sciences; and Kenneth V. Snyder, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurosurgery, radiology and neurology. The company has evolved from a promising lab project to a business with big potential. Neurovascular Diagnostics is a UB spinoff company that is developing a low-cost blood test to screen high-risk patients for unruptured brain aneurysms. 

A UB study suggests a link between fats in the blood and problems with arteries in people with multiple sclerosis. “This study provides another research avenue that may supplement previous findings published by our comprehensive MS group, including hyperlipidemia effects on disability progression, greater brain lesion formation and greater brain atrophy,” said Dejan Jakimovski, MD, a student in the doctoral program in neuroscience, who was the lead author of the study. Richard W. Browne, PhD, professor of biotechnical and clinical laboratory sciences; Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, MD, professor of neurology; and Robert Zivadinov, MD, PhD, professor of neurology, were study co-authors.

News outlets reported on a retrospective five-year study of 1,314 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) by researchers in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. The team found that atrophied brain lesion volume is the only marker from MRI scans that can accurately predict which patients will progress to the most severe form of the disease. “This study corroborates initial reports from our group regarding using atrophied lesion volume as a potential MRI marker of disease progression in a large, population-based cohort of MS patients followed in clinical routine,” said Robert Zivadinov, MD, PhD, professor of neurology in the Jacobs School and director of the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center and the Center for Biomedical Imaging at UB’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

Multiple Sclerosis News Today reports on a retrospective, five-year study of 1,314 patients with multiple sclerosis by researchers in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “The fact that atrophied lesion volume was the only measure that was predictive of conversion to progressive multiple sclerosis, and brain atrophy was not, is a major novel finding of this study,” said Robert Zivadinov, MD, professor of neurology in the Jacobs School, director of its Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center and director of the Center for Biomedical Imaging at UB’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, MD, professor of neurology, was quoted in a story that highlighted recent research related to vitamin D intake. Several studies have shown that people with multiple sclerosis are more likely to have low levels of vitamin D compared with healthy controls and that deficiency is both a risk factor for MS and for relapse, according to Weinstock-Guttman. “People with MS also have a higher risk of osteoporosis, primarily related to their physical disability, although there may be other contributing factors,” she said.