PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Kessler Foundation scientists publish protocol for combining aerobic exercise and cognitive rehabilitation in multiple sclerosis

Novel approach to treating impairments in MS particularly focuses on new learning and memory deficits

Kessler Foundation scientists publish protocol for combining aerobic exercise and cognitive rehabilitation in multiple sclerosis
2024-09-03
(Press-News.org) East Hanover, NJ – September 3, 2024 – Researchers at Kessler Foundation have published a new clinical protocol examining the combination of aerobic exercise and cognitive rehabilitation to improve learning and memory in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) who have mobility disability. The article, “Rationale and methodology for examining the combination of aerobic exercise and cognitive rehabilitation on new learning and memory in persons with multiple sclerosis and mobility disability: Protocol for a randomized controlled trial,” was published online and will appear in print in Contemporary Clinical Trials, Volume 144, September 2024, under Doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2024.107630.

The study explores a novel combinatory approach to treating cognitive impairments in MS, particularly focusing on new learning and memory deficits. The researchers hypothesize that combining aerobic exercise enhanced by virtual reality (VR) with cognitive rehabilitation, particularly Kessler Foundation-modified Story Memory Technique (KF-mSMT®), will result in broader and more robust cognitive improvements.

Authors of the article include Carly L.A. Wender, PhD; Odalys Arbelaez; Tien T. Tong, PhD; Amber Salter; Glenn R. Wylie, DPhil; Brian M. Sandroff, PhD; Nancy D. Chiaravalloti, PhD, from Kessler Foundation; Robert W. Motl, Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition, University of Illinois Chicago; Amber Salter, Department of Neurology, University of Texas Southwestern.

The article describes the protocol for a Phase I/II, parallel-group, single-blind randomized controlled trial that includes 78 participants with MS and mobility disability in the current trial, COMBINE (Combination Optimizes Memory Based on Imaging and Neuropsychological Endpoints). Participants are randomized to either an aerobic cycling exercise with VR combined with KF-mSMT or a control group receiving stretching and toning exercises combined with KF-mSMT. The primary outcomes measured include various aspects of new learning and memory such as list learning, prose memory, and visuospatial memory, along with neuroimaging outcomes focused on hippocampal structure and function.

“This trial is a significant step forward in our understanding of how multimodal interventions can enhance cognitive outcomes for people with MS,” said Dr. Wender, the study’s lead author and research scientist in the Centers for Multiple Sclerosis Research and Neuropsychology and Neuroscience Research at the Foundation. “By targeting the hippocampus through both cognitive and physical stimuli, we aim to provide more effective treatment options for individuals who face substantial cognitive challenges due to MS,” she added. “Combining exercise with cognitive rehabilitation has the potential to produce synergistic effects, particularly in individuals with greater disease progression,” she concluded.

The study's methodology and rationale reflect a growing interest in integrated approaches to treating MS-related cognitive impairments, with the potential to significantly impact clinical practices in rehabilitation. This research was supported by a grant from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Grant Number RFA-2301-40758.

About Kessler Foundation
Kessler Foundation, a major nonprofit organization in the field of disability, is a global leader in rehabilitation research. Our scientists seek to improve cognition, mobility, and long-term outcomes, including employment, for adults and children with neurological and developmental disabilities of the brain and spinal cord including traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and autism. Kessler Foundation also leads the nation in funding innovative programs that expand opportunities for employment for people with disabilities. For more information, visit KesslerFoundation.org.

Press Contact at Kessler Foundation:
Deborah Hauss, DHauss@kesslerfoundation.org

Stay Connected with Kessler Foundation
X (formerly known as Twitter) | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram | SoundCloud

END

[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Kessler Foundation scientists publish protocol for combining aerobic exercise and cognitive rehabilitation in multiple sclerosis

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New hope for progressive supranuclear palsy with innovative trial

2024-09-03
$75 million NIH grant could lead to the first effective drugs for a condition with few treatment options A clinical trial that will test three drugs concurrently, and could include more, represents new hope for patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), an incurable neurodegenerative disorder that usually kills within seven years after symptoms start.   Researchers hope the trial, which will be led by UC San Francisco and conducted at up to 50 sites nationwide, will lead to the development of new therapies. There are currently no drugs to stall the disease’s deadly progression. The ...

Mass General Brigham Gene and Cell Therapy Institute launches RNA Therapeutics Core

2024-09-03
The Mass General Brigham Gene and Cell Therapy Institute (GCTI) today announced it has launched the RNA Therapeutics Core, a first-of-its-kind, state-of-the-art facility and resource to advance the use of RNA technologies within and beyond the Mass General Brigham research ecosystem. This new Core is dedicated to accelerating the exploration of novel therapeutic targets to effectively translate RNA-based medicines into clinical practice by leveraging advanced RNA vectors and delivery systems. Until now, a Core of this kind has not existed within an academic setting. With this launch, the RNA Therapeutics Core enables ...

Dangerous airborne fungus boosted by California droughts

Dangerous airborne fungus boosted by California droughts
2024-09-03
Valley fever is an emerging fungal disease in the western United States that most often causes flu-like symptoms, but can also cause dangerous or even deadly complications. By analyzing data on reported cases of Valley fever in California, which have increased dramatically over the last two decades, researchers from University of California San Diego and University of California, Berkeley, have identified seasonal patterns that could help individuals and public health officials better prepare for future surges in Valley fever cases. The findings also have important implications for how the changing climate can exacerbate the threat of infectious diseases. The findings are published in The ...

$1.8 million NIH grant to FAU engineering fuels quest to decode human evolution

$1.8 million NIH grant to FAU engineering fuels quest to decode human evolution
2024-09-03
Natural selection is an important evolutionary force that enables humans to adapt to new environments and fight disease-causing pathogens. However, the unique footprints of natural selection in our genome can be buried beneath those left by other evolutionary forces. Thus, by leveraging information about multiple evolutionary forces, researchers can identify signatures of natural selection in the human genome, and ultimately determine its role in human adaptation and disease. Low-cost DNA sequencing has ...

Communication helps parent relationships with new college students but has limits

2024-09-03
PULLMAN, Wash. -- When young adults first go off to college, more communication with parents generally leads to better relationships, but parents should avoid always initiating it, according to a study led by Washington State University researchers. In a paper published in the journal Emerging Adulthood, WSU Assistant Professor Jennifer Duckworth and co-authors found that phone, text, video or in-person communication made first-year students feel better about the relationship with their parents. Students also felt better about the relationship when parents offered support or advice, and when they discussed important topics, such as studying and friendships. However, researchers found ...

Natural selection may create inter-species exploitation

2024-09-03
A modeling study suggests that one-sided interspecies cooperation can spontaneously emerge and persist over time, despite only one species benefitting. Evolutionary game theory, and the prisoner’s dilemma in particular, are often used to model the evolution of cooperation within a single species. In the prisoner’s dilemma, both parties benefit by cooperating, but the greatest benefit is earned by a defector who plays with a cooperator. The temptation to cheat tends to push players towards defection, ...

Targeted cancer therapies: Getting radioactive atoms to accumulate in tumors

Targeted cancer therapies: Getting radioactive atoms to accumulate in tumors
2024-09-03
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men worldwide, following lung cancer. In the United States alone, nearly 300,000 new cases are diagnosed annually. While reducing testosterone and other male hormones can be an effective treatment for prostate cancer, this approach becomes ineffective once the disease progresses to metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). At this stage, the cancer advances quickly and becomes resistant to conventional hormonal therapies and chemotherapy.   A clever strategy for fighting mCRPC is to exploit the ...

Gigantic asteroid impact shifted the axis of Solar System's biggest moon

Gigantic asteroid impact shifted the axis of Solar Systems biggest moon
2024-09-03
Around 4 billion years ago, an asteroid hit the Jupiter moon Ganymede. Now, a Kobe University researcher realized that the Solar System's biggest moon's axis has shifted as a result of the impact, which confirmed that the asteroid was around 20 times larger than the one that ended the age of the dinosaurs on Earth, and caused one of the biggest impacts with clear traces in the Solar System. Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System, bigger even than the planet Mercury, and is also interesting for the liquid water oceans beneath its icy surface. Like the Earth’s moon, it is tidally locked, meaning that it always shows the ...

Finger wrap uses sweat to provide health monitoring at your fingertips—literally

Finger wrap uses sweat to provide health monitoring at your fingertips—literally
2024-09-03
A sweat-powered wearable has the potential to make continuous, personalized health monitoring as effortless as wearing a Band-Aid. Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed an electronic finger wrap that monitors vital chemical levels—such as glucose, vitamins, and even drugs—present in the same fingertip sweat from which it derives its energy. The advance was published Sept. 3 in Nature Electronics by the research group of Joseph Wang, a professor in the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering ...

Large sharks may be hunting each other – and scientists know because of a swallowed tracking tag

Large sharks may be hunting each other – and scientists know because of a swallowed tracking tag
2024-09-03
Who killed the pregnant porbeagle? In a marine science version of the game Cluedo, researchers from the US have now accused a larger shark, with its deciduous triangular teeth, in the open sea southwest of Bermuda. This scientific whodunnit is published in Frontiers in Marine Science. “This is the first documented predation event of a porbeagle shark anywhere in the world,” said lead author Dr Brooke Anderson, a former graduate student at Arizona State University. “In one event, the population not only lost a reproductive female that could contribute to population growth, but it also lost all her developing ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Breast cancer risk in younger women may be influenced by hormone therapy

Strategies for staying smoke-free after rehab

Commentary questions the potential benefit of levothyroxine treatment of mild hypothyroidism during pregnancy

Study projects over 14 million preventable deaths by 2030 if USAID defunding continues

New study reveals 33% gap in transplant access for UK’s poorest children

Dysregulated epigenetic memory in early embryos offers new clues to the inheritance of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

IVF and IUI pregnancy rates remain stable across Europe, despite an increasing uptake of single embryo transfer

It takes a village: Chimpanzee babies do better when their moms have social connections

From lab to market: how renewable polymers could transform medicine

Striking increase in obesity observed among youth between 2011 and 2023

No evidence that medications trigger microscopic colitis in older adults

NYUAD researchers find link between brain growth and mental health disorders

Aging-related inflammation is not universal across human populations, new study finds

University of Oregon to create national children’s mental health center with $11 million federal grant

Rare achievement: UTA undergrad publishes research

Fact or fiction? The ADHD info dilemma

Genetic ancestry linked to risk of severe dengue

Genomes reveal the Norwegian lemming as one of the youngest mammal species

Early birds get the burn: Monash study finds early bedtimes associated with more physical activity

Groundbreaking analysis provides day-by-day insight into prehistoric plankton’s capacity for change

Southern Ocean saltier, hotter and losing ice fast as decades-long trend unexpectedly reverses

Human fishing reshaped Caribbean reef food webs, 7000-year old exposed fossilized reefs reveal

Killer whales, kind gestures: Orcas offer food to humans in the wild

Hurricane ecology research reveals critical vulnerabilities of coastal ecosystems

Montana State geologist’s Antarctic research focuses on accumulations of rare earth elements

Groundbreaking cancer therapy clinical trial with US Department of Energy’s accelerator-produced actinium-225 set to begin this summer

Tens of thousands of heart attacks and strokes could be avoided each year if cholesterol-lowering drugs were used according to guidelines

Leading cancer and metabolic disease expert Michael Karin joins Sanford Burnham Prebys

Low-intensity brain stimulation may restore neuron health in Alzheimer's disease

Four-day school week may not be best for students, review finds

[Press-News.org] Kessler Foundation scientists publish protocol for combining aerobic exercise and cognitive rehabilitation in multiple sclerosis
Novel approach to treating impairments in MS particularly focuses on new learning and memory deficits