Treatment options for progressive types of multiple sclerosis have expanded significantly, and experts are looking at several promising experimental therapies, including neurologist-researchers at the Hackensack Meridian Neuroscience Institute at Hackensack University Medical Center’s Comprehensive Care Center for Multiple Sclerosis and Related Diseases, where two clinical trials are now being offered to patients who are living with multiple sclerosis.
During MS Awareness Month this March, numerous clinical trials are ongoing at the Hackensack Meridian Neuroscience Institute.
Here’s a look at two:
Exploring CAR T-Cell Therapy in MS Care: The study sponsored by Bristol Myers Squibb is investigating the potential of chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR, T-cell therapy in the treatment of patients with relapse-remitting MS, primary progressive multiple sclerosis and secondary-progressive MS.
CAR T-cell therapy involves extracting the patient’s own T-cells and “reprogramming” them in the lab to target cells responsible for causing degeneration that leads to MS symptoms. Patients will then undergo chemotherapy to “reboot” their immune system before the reprogrammed T-cells are reintroduced in their body.
“CAR T-cell therapy is currently being used as a cancer treatment for blood cancers including leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma,” said Dr. Krupa Pandey, principal investigator, neurologist, director of the MS Comprehensive Care Center and the research division of the Department of Neurology at Hackensack University Medical Center and associate professor of neurology at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, who is serving as principal investigator of the study. “Through this trial, we are leveraging the power of the patient’s own immune system to deliver personalized therapy that has the potential to slow MS activity.”
In addition to Pandey, Dr. Florian Thomas, chair of the Neuroscience Institute & Department of Neurology at Hackensack University Medical Center and professor and chair of Neurology at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, Dr. Anuradha Singh, neuroimmunologist, and Dr. Kiandokht Keyhanian, neuro-ophthalmologist and neuroimmunologist, at the Hackensack Meridian Neuroscience Institute and assistant professors of Neurology at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, will be working collaboratively with stem cell transplantation expert Dr. Michele Donato, chief of the Adult Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Program at the Hackensack Meridian John Theurer Cancer Center and professor of oncology, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, to oversee treatment for enrolled patients.
The team is hoping to enroll four current MS Center patients who meet all other study inclusion criteria.
BTK Inhibitor Trial for Primary Progressive MS: The second study is a Phase 3, randomized, double-blind study sponsored by Sanofi that is investigating the safety and efficacy of an oral medication, a Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase, or BTK, Inhibitor in patients with PPMS, a form of the disease that is rarely studied.
BTK inhibitors are showing promise in the treatment of PPMS due to their ability to cross the blood/brain barrier, impact local communication of immune cells within the central nervous system — both of which can work to preserve the integrity of the brain and spinal cord. The study aims to determine whether the medication can slow or stop inflammation and demyelination that cause PPMS symptoms by working on immune cells within the brain and spinal cord.
The study is recruiting up to 10 patients under age 50 who have been diagnosed with PPMS and meet all other study inclusion criteria.
