Media Coverage

A story reports on a five-year study of 1,314 patients with multiple sclerosis led by researchers from the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. The researchers 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. “We’re trying to prevent these lesions from forming in the first place, and now we’re also looking for medications that hopefully will prevent loss of lesions” when secondary progressive MS is strongly suspected, said Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, MD, a professor of neurology and part of the research study team.

Research led by Robert Zivadinov, MD, PhD, professor of neurology, found that while a commonly used imaging linear contrast agent, gadodiamide, does accumulate in the brain early in the disease, there is no discernible clinical impact. “This study is one of the first to investigate the longitudinal association between well-established clinical and MRI outcomes of disease severity and gadolinium deposition,” he said. “The findings from this study should be incorporated into a risk-versus-benefit analysis when determining the need for GBCA administration in individual MS patients.”

Research by Kinga Szigeti, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurology and director of UB’s Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorders Center, shows that a gene that three in four people have is the key reason that Alzheimer’s drugs that show promise in animal studies failed in human trials, and that people with Alzheimer’s who receive more individualized treatments may have more success. “Since this human fusion gene was not present in the animal models and screening systems used to identify drugs, 75 percent of Alzheimer's patients who do carry this gene are less likely to benefit and therefore are at a disadvantage,” she said.

People with neuroimmunologic disorders — such as multiple sclerosis and myasthenia gravis (MG) — have concerns about the safety of vaccines for measles and other conditions but are also concerned about their additional risks of infection. “A person without a chronic neurologic illness has to contend with the symptoms of measles or shingles alone, but with one of these disorders, the disease itself can be worsened by that infection,” explains Nicholas J. Silvestri, MD, clinical associate professor of neurology.

A $2 million National Institutes of Health grant to UB’s Hunter James Kelly Research Institute will fund a novel approach into understanding and ultimately curing Krabbe’s Disease, the disease that killed Hunter James Kelly, the son of Jim and Jill Kelly for whom the institute was named. “Krabbe is a devastating neurological disease of newborn babies, bringing them, unfortunately, to die within a few years of life," said M. Laura Feltri, MD, professor of biochemistry and neurology, and co-director of the institute.

Publications reported on an international study published in The Lancet Neurology and led by Gil I. Wolfe, MD, UB Distinguished Professor and Irvin and Rosemary Smith Chair of the Department of Neurology, that found that patients with the autoimmune disease myasthenia gravis do better when they undergo surgery to remove the thymus gland even five years after the procedure than do patients who do not undergo the surgery.

Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, MD, professor of neurology, is quoted in an article about a company that is seeking a fast-track designation from the FDA for a cannabis-based pharmaceutical candidate for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. “Cannabis appears to be beneficial for spasticity and additional symptoms in MS patients,” she said.

An article about efforts by the police department in Stockton, California, one of the nation’s most dangerous cities, to help officers learn how to talk about their feelings and better cope with the stress of the job reports a UB study found that between 9 and 19 percent of officers nationally are at risk for PTSD. The article notes Janet L. Shucard, PhD, associate professor of clinical neurology, and her team “hypothesize that PTSD impairs the attention and response control processes that are necessary for rapid and accurate decision-making.”

A new study that suggests a link between food allergies and increased disease activity in patients with multiple sclerosis interviews Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, MD, professor of neurology, who was not involved in the research. "Interestingly, a previous study on pediatric MS patients identified that food allergies that developed within the first 5 years of life were associated with a lower risk for relapses," she said. "Immunological differences developed too early versus later-life food allergens between the pediatric to adult population may be an explanation for the discordant results."

Gil I. Wolfe, MD, professor and Irvin and Rosemary Smith Chair of neurology, was one of several experts quoted in an article about myasthenia gravis patients who benefit most from thymectomy. “We analyzed data through month 60 to look at how persistent, how durable, the favorable response to thymectomy is,” he said. “It is quite well established that most myasthenia gravis patients after a prolonged period of focused management do quite well. We wanted to see over how long a period of time you might see benefits from thymectomy that exceeded medical therapy alone.”

An article reports on research by Robert Zivadinov, MD, PhD, professor of neurology, that found that brain iron at quantitative magnetic resonance imaging is associated with disability in multiple sclerosis. “In this large cohort of MS patients and healthy controls, we have reported, for the first time, iron increasing in the basal ganglia but decreasing in thalamic structures,” he said. “Iron depletion or increase in several structures of the brain is an independent predictor of disability related to MS.”

Research by Robert Zivadinov, MD, PhD, professor of neurology, has found that brain iron at quantitative magnetic resonance imaging is associated with disability in multiple sclerosis. "In this large cohort of MS patients and healthy controls, we have reported, for the first time, iron increasing in the basal ganglia but decreasing in thalamic structures," he said. "Iron depletion or increase in several structures of the brain is an independent predictor of disability related to MS." 

New UB research has shown that, for patients with multiple sclerosis, the disappearance of lesions into the cerebrospinal fluid is a better indicator of who will develop disability than the appearance or expansion of the lesions, and quotes Robert Zivadinov, professor of neurology. “Using the appearance of new brain lesions and the enlargement of existing ones as the indicator of disease progression, there was no sign of who would develop disability during five or 10 years of follow-up, but when we used the amount of brain lesion volume that had atrophied, we could predict within the first six months who would develop disability progression over long-term follow-up,” said Zivadinov, who serves as director of the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center (BNAC) in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and directs the Center for Biomedical Imaging at UB’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI).

Research by Robert Zivadinov, MD, PhD, professor of neurology, has found that a new, highly accurate MRI technique can monitor iron levels in the brains of multiple sclerosis patients, helping to identify those at a higher risk for developing physical disability.

An article on Spectroscopy Now reports on research by Robert Zivadinov, MD, PhD, professor of neurology, that found that a new, highly accurate MRI technique can monitor iron levels in the brains of multiple sclerosis patients, helping to identify those at a higher risk for developing physical disability. “Iron depletion or increase in several structures of the brain is an independent predictor of disability related to MS,” said Zivadinov, who is also director of the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center (BNAC) and directs the Center for Biomedical Imaging at UB’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI).