SPRINT-MIND Trial Results, Alemtuzumab and Rituximab Safe for MS, CAP-1002 for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

This week, Neurology News Network covered the findings of the SPRINT-MIND trial that studied the effect of implementing an intensive strategy to lower a patient’s systolic blood pressure to <120 mm Hg and the significance in reducing dementia risk compared to a standard care strategy, and an analysis that concluded that treating patients with relapsing MS who have withdrawn from fingolimod is both safe and effective with alemtuzumab or rituximab. Additionally, the network discussed the results of the Halt Cardiomyopathy Progression (HOPE)-Duchenne phase 1/2 trial of CAP-1002. (Transcript below.)

Jenna:

Welcome to Neurology News Network. I’m Jenna Payesko. Let’s get into the news from this week.

Despite early results suggesting a positive effect on the risk of dementia, the final analysis of the SPRINT-MIND trial has shown that implementing an intensive strategy to lower a patient’s systolic blood pressure to <120 mm Hg does not significantly reduce dementia risk compared to a standard care strategy.

Maria C. Carrillo, PhD, the chief science officer of the Alzheimer’s Association, told NeurologyLive that for the clinician community, the main takeaway is that the mild cognitive impairment had a reduced risk of 19%. She said that it is “important to share this information with clinicians because when you prevent new cases of MCI, you're essentially preventing new cases of dementia, and that is an important message not only for clinicians but also for the public at large.”

Treating patients with relapsing MS who have withdrawn from fingolimod is both safe and effective with alemtuzumab or rituximab.

Previous research has suggested that therapies such as alemtuzumab would be less effective following fingolimod treatment due to the dynamics of lymphocyte repopulation post-withdrawal. This analysis has shown that after roughly 30 months, the annualized relapse rate was significantly reduced from baseline with both alemtuzumab and rituximab, without significant differences between the 2 groups.

The results of Halt Cardiomyopathy Progression (HOPE)-Duchenne, a recently published phase 1/2 trial of intracoronary allogeneic cardiosphere-derived cells, or CAP-1002, demonstrated improvement in cardiac muscle function and reduction in myocardium scarring that were statistically significant, and sustained improvement of skeletal muscle functions in patients in advanced stages of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Investigators concluded that the therapy appears safe and demonstrates signals of efficacy on both cardiac and upper limb function for up to 12 months, warranting future research of Duchenne muscular dystrophy cardiac and skeletal myopathies.

For more direct access to expert insight, head to neurologylive.com. This has been Neurology News Network. Thanks for watching.