Recent Advances and New Therapies for NMOSD: Bruce Cree, MD, PhD, MAS, FAAN

WATCH TIME: 6 minutes

“The remarkable aspect of this story is that in a relatively short period of time, we've gone from a disease that had no proven therapies to a disease that has 3 proven therapies. Backing it up a little bit, it wasn't even that long ago that there was an ongoing debate as to whether NMO was a distinct disease entity or not.”

The differentiation of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) and multiple sclerosis (MS) has had a profound effect on care for these patient populations, with the distinction of NMO pathogenesis informing drug development. Bruce Cree, Md, PhD, MAS, FAAN, clinical research director, UCSF Multiple Sclerosis Center, and professor of clinical neurology, UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, sat down with NeurologyLive to discuss advances made within NMOSD, as well as the work that has propelled the field forward thus far. 

Cree called specific attention to the development of inebilizumab (Uplinza; Horizon), a B-cell depleting antibody therapy, satralizumab (Enspryng; Genentech/Roche), an interlukin 6 receptor blocker, and eculizumab (Soliris; Alexion), a terminal complement inhibitor, noting that the treatments are effective when it comes to therapeutic efficacy and that the resulting 70% impact on attack reduction is “uncommon in medicine.” While NMOSD was once a fatal illness and difficult to treat, Cree said, collaboration from experts has assisted in the development of 3 FDA-approved, effective treatments that offer measurable therapeutic benefit for patients.