Patients with progressive multiple sclerosis experience relentless disability worsening.
Although current FDA-approved therapies for MS prevent relapses, very few help slow down disability worsening in patients with progressive forms.
Biological processes leading to insidious worsening of disability in progressive MS are largely unknown, limiting the development of drugs.
One strategy to slow down disability worsening is to find neuroprotective agents, i.e. drugs that renders nerve cells more resistant to injury.
We have designed a proof-of-concept trial in progressive MS of high dose N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) as an add-on to standard of care (the study is still enrolling at UCSF and UC San Diego, sponsor Department of Defense, TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT05122559)
Goals of the NAC in progressive MS (NACPMS) trial:
- Identify preliminary evidence that NAC prevents brain atrophy and gait worsening compared with placebo.
- Confirm that an antioxidant treatment strategy may benefit patients with progressive MS.
- Confirm whether a novel multi-sensor device is more sensitive than traditional measures to detect disease progression.
If you are interested in referring a patient to the NAC in progressive MS trial,
please contact Uk Sok at [email protected]
We have designed this novel trial for patients with primary and secondary progressive MS, to minimize patient burden (patient stay on their usual MS drugs) and maximize information gained from the trial (MRI, clinical, biomarker). This state-of-the-art design may become the best way to fast-track screening of promising drugs in progressive MS.
Schoeps VA, Graves JS, Stern WA, Zhang L, Nourbakhsh B, Mowry EM, Henry RG, Waubant E. Contemp Clin Trials. 2022 Nov;122:106941. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2022.106941. Epub 2022 Sep 28. PMID: 36182028