researchXchange LIVE

On February 3rd MS-researchXchange held our first Live Event – a presentation by Drs. Bibi Bielekova and Peter Kosa of the National Institute of Health on Using CSF Biomarkers to Enhance MS Research. The Event was hosted by our editorial director Dr. Mike Racke and followed by a lively session of Q&A. (Note that the current version of DropCite requires a desktop or laptop computer.)

Using a unique data set with 20 years of detailed clinical and laboratory data on MS patients, the authors tested CSF samples for thousands of proteins, carefully differentiated between cognitive decline and physical disability. A few key conclusions: 

• 45% of people currently living with MS do not have effective treatment 
• Like cardiovascular disease, successful treatment of MS will require rational combination treatments that target disease mechanisms expressed in specific patients 
• CSF biomarkers derived from one spinal tap can be assembled into models that predict various clinical and imaging aspects of MS patients with accuracy that exceeds published MS models 
• CSF sampling should “absolutely” become a standard procedure in the clinical work up of MS patients 

We are posting the presentation slide deck here along with a full recording of the Event for those who were unable to attend.  The presentation slide deck has been annotated with comments from the authors along with questions to provide a quick roadmap to findings and issues raised by this important new research.

We believe that science advances through community review of the methods, implications and results of new research.  We hope you’ll take a moment to share with us your own questions and comments. You can make comments directly on the presentation slides on DropCite or send them to us by email at info@dropcite.com.