Faculty: Robert J. Fox, MD, FAAN, Chair; Celia Oreja-Guevara, MD, PhD; Anthony L. Traboulsee, MD, FRCPC
Jointly provided by Letters & Sciences and Partners for Advancing Clinical Education.
Supported by an independent educational grant from Sanofi.
This activity features leading Investigators offering valuable insights and experience, although the activity content is no longer available for credit.
Target Audience and Goal Statement
Neurologists, neuroscientists, neuroscience nurse practitioners, nurses, and other healthcare professionals involved or interested in the treatment, management, and care of persons with multiple sclerosis (MS).
Despite relapse control, disability progression occurs and remains an unmet need in the medical management of MS. Currently available therapies are less effective at slowing disability accumulation, in part owing to their lack of relevant effects on CNS-compartmentalized inflammation, which has been proposed to drive disability. Smoldering neuroinflammation, occurring exclusively in the CNS, has been largely inaccessible due to the lack of treatments that directly target disease-associated microglia and cross the blood-brain barrier. Left untreated, smoldering disease can result in irreversible disability accumulation and damage that may negatively impact patients’ lives. With the emerging potential of Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors that disarm centrally activated pathologies, along with data from a pivotal phase 3 trial in secondary progressive disease, clinicians need better clarity and expert insights to identify their potential role in targeting smoldering disease pathologies and disability in MS.
This CME/CNE symposium will review the concept of smoldering disease, along with potential drivers involved in disability accumulation and strategies to monitor subclinical disease worsening. The expert faculty will also address the critical unmet need for therapies targeting pathways of disease progression and examine the role of BTK inhibitors as brain-penetrant disease-modifying therapies (DMTs), highlighting emerging clinical data on their potential to mitigate disease worsening. Finally, clinical considerations in optimizing the use of novel therapeutic approaches in MS management will be discussed.
Upon completion of this activity, participants will be able to:
- Examine the therapeutic potential of targeting BTK on drivers of smoldering neuroinflammation
- Review the concept of smoldering-associated worsening (SAW) along with potential drivers and pathways involved in disability accumulation
- Apply disability assessment tools to proactively monitor and identify patients for early interventions
- Discuss expert insights on BTK inhibitors from clinical trials to anticipate place in therapy
- Summarize safety issues and monitoring parameters to gain confidence when incorporating emerging therapies into clinical practice
- Identify clinical scenarios and treatment considerations that impact potential use of BTK inhibitor therapy
BTKi Update: Breaking Through the Blood–Brain Barrier & Transforming Smoldering Disease as a Driver of Disability
This activity features leading Investigators offering valuable insights and experience, although the activity content is no longer available for credit.
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