Cellular therapies for treating pain associated with spinal cord injury

Spinal cord injury leads to immense disability and loss of quality of life in human with no satisfactory clinical cure. Cell-based or cell-related therapies have emerged as promising therapeutic potentials both in regeneration of spinal cord and mitigation of neuropathic pain due to spinal cord injury. This article reviews the various options and their latest developments with an update on their therapeutic potentials and clinical trialing

Early phase clinical trials of anticancer agents in children and adolescents — an ITCC perspective

In the past decade, the landscape of drug development in oncology has evolved dramatically; however, this paradigm shift remains to be adopted in early phase clinical trial designs for studies of molecularly targeted agents and immunotherapeutic agents in paediatric malignancies. In drug development, prioritization of drugs on the basis of knowledge of tumour biology, molecular 'drivers' of disease and a drug's mechanism of action, and therapeutic unmet needs are key elements; these aspects are relevant to early phase paediatric trials, in which molecular profiling is strongly encouraged. Herein, we describe the strategy of the Innovative Therapies for Children with Cancer (ITCC) Consortium, which advocates for the adoption of trial designs that enable uninterrupted patient recruitment, the extrapolation from studies in adults when possible, and the inclusion of expansion cohorts. If a drug has neither serious dose-related toxicities nor a narrow therapeutic index, then studies should generally be started at the adult recommended phase II dose corrected for body surface area, and act as dose-confirmation studies. The use of adaptive trial designs will enable drugs with promising activity to progress rapidly to randomized studies and, therefore, will substantially accelerate drug development for children and adolescents with cancer

First-episode psychosis as the initial presentation of multiple sclerosis: a case report

Athena Enderami,1 Rose Fouladi,2 Seyed Hamzeh Hosseini3 1Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Mazandaran, Sari, Iran; 2Sport Injuries and Corrective Exercise, University of Mazandaran, Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran; 3Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Research Center, Addiction Institute, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease that affects the central nervous system (CNS). MS with episode of psychosis is a rare entity, and to the best of our knowledge, no case has been reported from Iran till date. Case presentation: We report a case of MS with first-episode psychosis in a 27-year-old single man with no history of psychiatric disorder or drug abuse. The patient developed neurological symptoms after 3 months and was finally diagnosed as a case of MS. His symptoms started with behavioral dysfunctions and progressively resulted in depression. Subsequently, treatment was performed with citalopram 20 mg daily, risperidone 2 mg three times a day, and biperiden 2 mg three times a day; however, no improvements in the symptoms were observed. T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging has demonstrated periventricular and white matter multiple sclerotic plugs with lesions. Eventually, MS was diagnosed after the appearance of paresthesia, upper and lower limb muscle weakness, ataxia, and urinary incontinency as typical signs. Then, the medications were changed to methylprednisolone and interferon therapy, which resulted in improvements in the clinical conditions of the patient. Conclusion: Based on the fact that organic disorders such as MS may sometimes appear with initial pure psychiatric symptoms without any neurological signs and symptoms, examinations for symptoms linked to CNS dysfunction, cognitive changes, atypical symptoms, detailed neurological examination, and limited response to conventional antipsychotic drugs are highly recommended to be carried out for patients with first-episode psychosis and even in the follow-up period. Keywords: multiple sclerosis, MS, episode, psychotic disorders, case report, signs, symptom