Health

‘Liquid gold’ could bring new hope to multiple sclerosis patients, study suggests: ‘Profound benefit’

Published

9 months ago

May 1, 2024

‘Liquid gold’ could bring new hope to multiple sclerosis patients, study suggests: ‘Profound benefit’

Researchers may have hit “gold” when it comes to the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

An experimental medication called CNM-Au8 — a drinkable liquid with gold nanocrystals — has shown promising results in clinical trials in terms of improvements in MS symptoms.

The “catalytically active” liquid, developed by Clene Nanomedicine in North East, Maryland, can cross the blood-brain barrier to help improve cellular energy and restore neurological function, according to researchers.

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Doctors at the University of Sydney presented the Phase 2 clinical trial findings at the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting earlier in April 2024.

The clinical trials included 78 patients who had relapsing multiple sclerosis.

An experimental medication called CNM-Au8 — a drinkable liquid with gold nanocrystals — has shown promising results in clinical trials for improving MS symptoms. (Clene Nanomedicine)

The gold liquid suspension was found to have a “profound clinical benefit,” with the patients experiencing physical improvements not achieved in prior trials.

A need for new MS drugs

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, brain, spinal cord and optic nerve.

In people with MS, white cells called lymphocytes infiltrate the central nervous system and trigger inflammation.

That often causes them to feel off balance or lose their vision, according to Dr. Robert C. Sergott, chief of the neuro-ophthalmology service at Wills Eye Hospital and professor of ophthalmology, neurology and neurosurgery at Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Philadelphia.

The MS medications that are currently available work by addressing inflammation — but there is a subset of patients that continue to experience symptoms even without inflammation, he said. This is a condition called progression independent of relapse activity (PIRA).

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“This is a non-inflammatory component of the disease, where patients would worsen in vision and cognitive abilities,” Sergott, who was involved in the clinical trial for CNM-Au8, told Fox News Digital.

Researchers suspected that something to do with mitochondria — parts of cells that are responsible for supplying those cells with energy — was causing these patients’ symptoms.

“The theory was that if we could give the mitochondria an extra boost, the neurons, axons and other cells in the central nervous system may work better,” said Sergott.

The “catalytically active” liquid can cross the blood-brain barrier to help improve cellular energy and restore neurological function, according to researchers. (Clene Nanomedicine)

“In other words, maybe these cells aren’t dead, but they’re hibernating.”

Gold nanoparticles were originally used to treat rheumatoid arthritis many years ago, according to Sergott.

“Clene innovated a novel electrochemical method to make gold particles and [got] them to a very highly purified nanoparticle state — into very small particles, so they can get through the blood-brain barrier to the cells that need it to work better.”

‘Significant result’

Among the 78 participants in the randomized clinical trial performed in Australia, two-thirds of them received the gold treatment and the other third received a placebo over a three-year period.

“We had hoped to enroll more patients, but COVID intervened,” Sergott said.

Neither the patients nor the neurologist overseeing the trial knew who was receiving the actual medicine.

“We’re very encouraged and ready to take the next step. It’s going to help a lot of people.”

“Patients saw a clinical improvement in the function of their vision and their cognitive ability,” Sergott reported.

Doctors also noted an improvement in the electrophysiology, he said — “the patients’ MRIs looked better, which is a special measure.”

“The theory was that if we could give the mitochondria an extra boost, the neurons, axons and other cells in the central nervous system may work better,” a doctor said. (iStock)

The patients who received the medicine had no decline in retinal thickness, but those on the placebo did see a decline, he said.

“This was a very significant result, and gives us a lot of hope that we may be able to help patients who have deficits from MS and have had progression independent of relapse activity — or maybe they had an attack and didn’t get complete recovery from it,” Sergott said.

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None of the trial participants reported any adverse side effects, he said.

“The safety profile is excellent,” Sergott told Fox News Digital. “I can’t say this doesn’t have any side effects — but no patients discontinued the trial because of a side effect that was significant.”

None of the trial participants reported any adverse side effects from the gold treatment, the researchers said. (iStock)

With the successful Phase 2 trials complete, researchers are now looking ahead to Phase 3 trials.

“We’re very encouraged and we’re ready to take the next step,” said Sergott. “It’s really going to help a lot of people.”

Patients taking CNM-Au8 would still need to continue with the standard regimen of anti-inflammatory medications, the doctor noted.

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Looking ahead, there is the potential for the “liquid gold” medication to help treat symptoms of other neurological disorders, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, according to Sergott — but the focus is on MS for now.

“We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but there is plenty of information to support trying this in other diseases.”

Patient shares his experience

Damian Kunko of Arlington, Virginia, was one of the MS patients who participated in the trial. He had previously taken disease-modifying therapies that included Zeposia and Tecfidera.

“These drugs reduced the risk of relapse, but had no effect on progressive symptom worsening,” Kunko told Fox News Digital.

Damian Kunko of Arlington, Virginia, was one of the MS patients who participated in the trial. (Clene Nanomedicine)

Kunko’s primary symptoms included heat intolerance, foot drop/limping, numbness, balance issues, double vision and minor decline of cognitive function and energy.

After four months of taking CNM-Au8, Kunko found that his walking speed was 14% faster.

“I was also able to do short 5-10-yard jogs without falling, which was impossible prior to taking [the drug],” he said.

“The best ‘side effect’ was knowing that this drug will fix my MS issues.”

“I also experienced improved visual acuity, less severe double vision, zero cognitive fog issues and increased energy levels.”

Later in the trial, Kunko was able to withstand high heat and humidity for several hours and did not experience any double vision, foot drop, excessive numbness or fatigue issues.

“It was nice to be able to go up and down stairs without having to hold the railing,” he said.

Clinical improvements were seen in both the visual system and on patients’ MRI scans, according to doctors. (iStock)

The patient said he did not experience any negative side effects or adverse reactions.

“The best ‘side effect’ was knowing that this drug will fix my MS issues,” Kunko said.

“I am very disappointed that this therapy is not yet commercially available for those who need to restore function and alleviate MS symptoms,” he added.

Doctors weigh in

Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical contributor, was not involved in the drug’s development but commented on the potential of gold therapies.

“Gold-containing analogies have long been treatments for rheumatoid arthritis — what is known as disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs,” he told Fox News Digital.

“And now gold-containing agents are being studied in MS and ALS.”

While the latest study is small, Siegel said, it “looks promising in terms of modifying disease and improving thinking and vision, which can be affected in the early stages of MS.”

He added, “More research with larger numbers needs to be done to be conclusive.”

“Gold-containing analogies have long been treatments for rheumatoid arthritis — what is known as disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs,” one doctor told Fox News Digital. (Clene Nanomedicine)

Dr. James Kuo, vice president of R&D at Silo Pharma in New Jersey, was also not involved in the drug’s development but said the trial results are “encouraging.”

“These new long-term results from the Phase 2 clinical trial support the therapeutic hypothesis that CNM-Au8 is remyelinating nerve cells in MS patients,” Kuo told Fox News Digital.

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“What is further encouraging is that both the primary and secondary endpoints showed continued improvement,” he added. “There was physiological enhancement in the visual neural pathway, a biomarker of nerve health. Further MRI measurements support remyelination occurring.”

“If further clinical data supports these initial findings, MS patients could well have a new, well-tolerated oral therapy that is not based upon immune system modulation.”

Ensuring proper dosing, monitoring patients for potential side effects and following proper follow-up protocols are “essential aspects” of bringing this therapy into clinical practice, a doctor said. (iStock)

Dr. Sameea Husain Wilson, director of movement disorder neurology at Marcus Neuroscience Institute, at Boca Raton Regional Hospital in Florida, said that CNM-Au8 offers hope for patients and their families.

“It shows promise in the possibility of slowing disease progression, improving symptoms and enhancing quality of life,” he told Fox News Digital in a statement.

Wilson noted, however, that it is important to “approach the drug development cautiously and be aware of potential risks.”

“The complexity of neurodegenerative diseases necessitates a comprehensive understanding of individual patient profiles,” he said.

“It’s essential to recognize that not all patients may respond uniformly to treatment, and factors such as disease stage, comorbidities and genetic predispositions may influence outcomes.”

For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health.

Melissa Rudy is health editor and a member of the lifestyle team at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to melissa.rudy@fox.com.

Health

Death Toll in Gaza Likely 40 Percent Higher Than Reported, Researchers Say

Published

2 hours ago

January 14, 2025

Press Room

Death Toll in Gaza Likely 40 Percent Higher Than Reported, Researchers Say

Deaths from bombs and other traumatic injuries during the first nine months of the war in Gaza may have been underestimated by more than 40 percent, according to a new analysis published in The Lancet.

The peer-reviewed statistical analysis, led by epidemiologists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, used modeling in an effort to provide an objective third-party estimate of casualties. The United Nations has relied on the figure from the Hamas-led Ministry of Health, which it says has been largely accurate, but which Israel criticizes as inflated.

But the new analysis suggests the Hamas health ministry tally is a significant undercount. The researchers concluded that the death toll from Israel’s aerial bombardment and military ground operation in Gaza between October 2023 and the end of June 2024 was about 64,300, rather than the 37,900 reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The estimate in the analysis corresponds to 2.9 percent of Gaza’s prewar population having been killed by traumatic injury, or one in 35 inhabitants. The analysis did not account for other war-related casualties such as deaths from malnutrition, water-borne illness or the breakdown of the health system as the conflict progressed.

The study found that 59 percent of the dead were women, children and people over the age of 65. It did not establish what share of the reported dead were combatants.

Mike Spagat, an expert on calculating casualties of war who was not involved in this research, said the new analysis convinced him that Gaza casualties were underestimated.

“This is a good piece of evidence that the real number is higher, probably substantially higher, than the Ministry of Health’s official numbers, higher than I had been thinking over the last few months,” said Dr. Spagat, who is a professor at Royal Holloway College at the University of London.

But the presentation of precise figures, such as a 41 percent underreported mortality, is less useful, he said, since the analysis actually shows the real total could be less than, or substantially more. “Quantitatively, it’s a lot more uncertain than I think comes out in the paper,” Dr. Spagat said.

The researchers said their estimate of 64,260 deaths from traumatic injury has a “confidence interval” between 55,298 and 78,525, which means the actual number of casualties is likely in that range.

If the estimated level of underreporting of deaths through June 2024 is extrapolated out to October 2024, the total Gazan casualty figure in the first year of the war would exceed 70,000.

“There is an importance to war injury deaths, because it speaks to the question of whether the campaign is proportional, whether it is, in fact, the case that sufficient provisions are made to to avoid civilian casualties,” said Francesco Checchi, an epidemiologist with an expertise in conflict and humanitarian crises and a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who was an author on the study. “I do think memorializing is important. There is inherent value in just trying to come up with the right number.”

The analysis uses a statistical method called capture-recapture analysis, which has been used to estimate casualties in other conflicts, including civil wars in Colombia and Sudan.

For Gaza, the researchers drew on three lists: The first is a register maintained by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which mainly comprises the dead in hospital morgues and estimates of the number of unrecovered people buried in rubble. The second is deaths reported by family or community members through an online survey form the ministry established on Jan. 1, 2024, when the prewar death registration system had broken down. It asked Palestinians inside and outside Gaza to provide names, ages, national ID number and location of death for casualties. The third source was obituaries of people who died from injuries that were published on social media, which may not include all of the same biographical details and which the researchers compiled by hand.

The researchers analyzed these sources to look for individuals who appear on multiple lists of those killed. A high level of overlap would have suggested that few deaths were uncounted; the low amount they found suggested the opposite. The researchers used models to calculate the probability of each individual appearing on any of the three lists.

“Models enable us to actually estimate the number of people who have not been listed at all,” Dr. Checchi said. That, combined with the listed number, gave the analysts their total.

Patrick Ball, director of research at the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, and a statistician who has conducted similar estimates of violent deaths in conflicts in other regions, said the study was strong and well reasoned. But he cautioned that the authors may have underestimated the amount of uncertainty caused by the ongoing conflict.

The authors used different variations of mathematical models in their calculations, but Dr. Ball said that rather than presenting a single figure — 64,260 deaths — as the estimate, it may have been more appropriate to present the number of deaths as a range from 47,457 to 88,332 deaths, a span that encompasses all of the estimates produced by modeling the overlap among the three lists.

“It’s really hard to do this kind of thing in the middle of a conflict,” Dr. Ball said. “It takes time, and it takes access. I think you could say the range is larger, and that would be plausible.”

While Gaza had a strong death registration process before the war, it now has only limited function after the destruction of much of the health system. Deaths are uncounted when whole families are killed simultaneously, leaving no one to report, or when an unknown number of people die in the collapse of a large building; Gazans are increasingly buried near their homes without passing through a morgue, Dr. Checchi said.

The authors of the study acknowledged that some of those assumed dead may in fact be missing, most likely taken as prisoners in Israel.

Roni Caryn Rabin and Lauren Leatherby contributed reporting.

Health

Dementia risk for people 55 and older has doubled, new study finds

Published

2 hours ago

January 14, 2025

Press Room

Dementia risk for people 55 and older has doubled, new study finds

Dementia cases in the U.S. are expected to double by 2060, with an estimated one million people diagnosed per year, according to a new study led by Johns Hopkins University and other institutions.

Researchers found that Americans’ risk of developing dementia after age 55 is 42%, double the risk that has been identified in prior studies, a press release stated.

For those who reach 75 years of age, the lifetime risk exceeds 50%, the study found.

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Women face a 48% average risk and men have a 35% risk, with the discrepancy attributed to women living longer than men.

Dementia cases in the U.S. are expected to double by 2060, with an estimated one million people diagnosed per year. (iStock)

The study, which was published in the journal Nature Medicine on Jan. 13, analyzed data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Neurocognitive Study (ARIC-NCS), which has tracked the cognitive and vascular health of nearly 16,000 adults since 1987.

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“Our study results forecast a dramatic rise in the burden from dementia in the United States over the coming decades, with one in two Americans expected to experience cognitive difficulties after age 55,” said study senior investigator and epidemiologist Josef Coresh, MD, PhD, who serves as the founding director of the Optimal Aging Institute at NYU Langone, in the release.

Understanding risk factors

“One of the main reasons for the increase is that great medicine and tecnological advances are keeping us alive longer and age is a risk factor for dementia,” Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health and Fox News senior medical analyst, told Fox News Digital.

“Obesity is associated with inflammation, diabetes and high blood pressure, which are all independent risk factors for dementia.”

In addition to aging, other risk factors include genetics, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, unhealthy diets of ultraprocessed foods, sedentary lifestyles and mental health disorders, the release said.

“We have an obesity epidemic with over 45% adults obese in the U.S.,” Siegel noted. “Obesity is associated with inflammation, diabetes and high blood pressure, which are all independent risk factors for dementia.”

“And as an unhealthy population, we also have more heart disease, and atrial fibrillation is a risk factor for cognitive decline,” he added.

Dementia risk was found to be higher among people who have a variant of the APOE4 gene, which has been linked to late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Black adults also have a higher risk.

virtual volumetric drawing of brain in hand

Researchers found that Americans’ risk of developing dementia after age 55 is 42%, double the risk that has been identified in prior studies. (iStock)

Research has shown that the same interventions used to prevent heart disease risk could also prevent or slow down dementia, the study suggested.

“The pending population boom in dementia cases poses significant challenges for health policymakers in particular, who must refocus their efforts on strategies to minimize the severity of dementia cases, as well as plans to provide more health care services for those with dementia,” said Coresh.

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What needs to change?

Professor Adrian Owen, PhD, neuroscientist and chief scientific officer at Creyos, a Canada-based company that specializes in cognitive assessment and brain health, referred to the increase in dementia cases as a “tidal wave.”

“This new study’s anticipated surge in dementia cases underscores the urgent need for early and accurate detection,” he told Fox News Digital.

“By catching issues early, we give people the power to make lifestyle adjustments, seek available treatments and plan their futures with clarity.”

“By identifying cognitive decline at its earliest stages, we have an opportunity to intervene before patients and families bear the full weight of the disease.”

Owen recommends conducting regular cognitive assessments as part of routine check-ups to proactively identify early signs of cognitive decline.

“By catching issues early, we give people the power to make lifestyle adjustments, seek available treatments and plan their futures with clarity,” he said.

“By identifying cognitive decline at its earliest stages, we have an opportunity to intervene before patients and families bear the full weight of the disease.” (iStock)

Maria C. Carrillo, PhD, chief science officer and medical affairs lead for the Alzheimer’s Association in Chicago, said there is an “urgent need” to address the global crisis of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

To help keep the aging brain healthy, the Alzheimer’s Association published its report 10 Healthy Habits for Your Brain. Some of the tips are listed below.

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– Participate in regular physical activity.

– Learn new things throughout your life and engage your brain.

– Get proper nutrition — prioritize vegetables and leaner meats/proteins, along with foods that are less processed and lower in fat.

– Avoid head injury (protect your head).

– Have a healthy heart and cardiovascular system — control blood pressure, avoid diabetes or treat it if you have it, manage your weight and don’t smoke.

Research has shown that the same interventions used to prevent heart disease risk could also prevent or slow down dementia. (iStock)

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers for additional comment.

Melissa Rudy is senior health editor and a member of the lifestyle team at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to melissa.rudy@fox.com.

Health

Are GLP-1 Pills the Future of Ozempic? | Woman's World

Published

9 hours ago

January 14, 2025

Press Room

Are GLP-1 Pills the Future of Ozempic? | Woman’s World

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