Neurologists awarded funding to develop their ground-breaking ideas  

Two major projects have been awarded millions of dollars to move forward with innovative ground-breaking ideas that aim to improve diagnosis and treatment of stroke and epilepsy. 

The Australian Stroke Alliance was awarded $40,167,052 for its ‘The Stroke Golden Hour’ project led by Professor Geoffrey Donnan and Professor Stephen Davis from the University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Hospital. The project will develop lightweight brain scanners that can be carried in ambulances, giving more Australians rapid access to real-time stroke treatment.  

The Australian Epilepsy Project, led by Professor Graeme Jackson from the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, was awarded $30,080,129 to develop an artificial intelligence platform that will provide expertise and clinical decision support, ensuring that people with epilepsy receive best practice care from their first seizure. 

The five year funding is being provided under Stage Two of the Frontier Health and Medical Research Initiative.

Ozanimod (Zeposia) reimbursed for relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis

The sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) receptor modulator ozanimod has been PBS listed for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) in adult patients.

The listing comes on the back of results from the phase 3 SUNBEAM and RADIANCE clinical trials, which assessed the efficacy and safety of  ozanimod compared to Interferon beta-1a intramuscular injection.

Which infants with vaccine-related seizures are likely to have recurrence?

Infants aged under 12 months presenting with vaccine-related seizure as their first seizure and with ongoing seizures should be referred for early investigation of an underlying genetic epilepsy, researchers advise. 

From an analysis of 119 children with a vaccine proximate seizure (VPS) as a first seizure, just over half (51%) went on to have other seizures. These children were more likely to present at a younger age (6.2 vs 12.5 months), with afebrile seizures (42.6% vs 15.5%) compared to children who experienced one vaccine related seizure.  VPS recurrence on revaccination was uncommon in both groups, but more common in VPS+ children (12.5% vs 2.4%). 

Having an epilepsy diagnosis, specifically Dravet Syndrome was associated with VPS recurrence, the researchers from the Children’s Hospital in Westmead, Sydney concluded in their paper published in Vaccine. 

“Additional precautions should be considered when vaccinating children with or suspected to have Dravet syndrome, who are at highest risk of VPS recurrence and significant neurological sequelae,” they added.