Trial reportAnnals of clinical and translational neurology2021
Response to ibudilast treatment according to progressive multiple sclerosis disease phenotype.
Trial report in Annals of clinical and translational neurology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effect of ibudilast on thalamic volume in progressive multiple sclerosis.Multiple sclerosis (Houndmills, Basingstoke, England) · 2023Trial
- Effects of Ibudilast on Retinal Atrophy in Progressive Multiple Sclerosis Subtypes: Post Hoc Analyses of the SPRINT-MS Trial.Neurology · 2023Trial
- Evaluation of cortical pathology in primary-progressive multiple sclerosis: a post hoc analysis of the SPRINT-MS trial.BMJ neurology open · 2026Article
- Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis: New Therapeutic Approaches.Neuropsychopharmacology reports · 2025Review
- Towards Treating Multiple Sclerosis Progression.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis-A Key to Understanding and Managing Disease Progression.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Emerging Potential of the Phosphodiesterase (PDE) Inhibitor Ibudilast for Neurodegenerative Diseases: An Update on Preclinical and Clinical Evidence.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Alcohol-Induced Neuroinflammatory Response and Mitochondrial Dysfunction on Aging and Alzheimer's Disease.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2021Review
- Influence of equipment changes on MRI measures of brain atrophy and brain microstructure in a placebo-controlled trial of ibudilast in progressive multiple sclerosis.Multiple sclerosis journal - experimental, translational and clinicalArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveDetermine whether a treatment effect of ibudilast on brain atrophy rate differs between participants with primary (PPMS) and secondary (SPMS) progressive multiple sclerosis.
backgroundProgressive forms of MS are both associated with continuous disability progression. Whether PPMS and SPMS differ in treatment response remains unknown. DESIGN/
methodsSPRINT-MS was a randomized, placebo-controlled 96-week phase 2 trial in both PPMS (n = 134) and SPMS (n = 121) patients. The effect of PPMS and SPMS phenotype on the rate of change of brain atrophy measured by brain parenchymal fraction (BPF) was examined by fitting a three-way interaction linear-mixed model. Adjustment for differences in baseline demographics, disease measures, and brain size was explored.
resultsAnalysis showed that there was a three-way interaction between the time, treatment effect, and disease phenotype (P < 0.06). After further inspection, the overall treatment effect was primarily driven by patients with PPMS (P < 0.01), and not by patients with SPMS (P = 0.97). This difference may have been due to faster brain atrophy progression seen in the PPMS placebo group compared to SPMS placebo (P < 0.02). Although backward selection (P < 0.05) retained age, T2 lesion volume, RNFL, and longitudinal diffusivity as significant baseline covariates in the linear-mixed model, the adjusted overall treatment effect was still driven by PPMS (P < 0.01).
interpretationThe previously reported overall treatment effect of ibudilast on worsening of brain atrophy in progressive MS appears to be driven by patients with PPMS that may be, in part, because of the faster atrophy progression rates seen in the placebo-treated group.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.