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Detection Of Antibodies Could Identify MS Patients Who Do Not Respond Well To Interferon Beta (P1184)
October 08, 2003Danish research published in this week's issue of THE LANCET highlights how the detection of antibodies to interferon beta-the first choice treatment for multiple sclerosis patients-could be important in identifying patients who do not respond well to interferon beta, with implications for the provision of alternative drug therapy.
Interferon beta is the first-line treatment for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, but the drug can induce neutralising antibodies against itself, which might reduce its effectiveness. Per Soelberg Sorensen from Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark, and colleagues measured neutralising antibodies every year for up to five years among 541 patients with multiple sclerosis, randomly selected from all patients who started treatment with interferon beta in Denmark between 1996 and 1999.
The time to first relapse was substantially longer (by 244 days) for patients who were antibody-negative after one year of interferon-beta treatment compared with patients who were antibody-positive. The yearly relapse rate was increased more than 50% in patients who developed antibodies compared with those who did not.
Patients developed neutralising antibodies independent of age, sex, disease duration, and prognosis at the start of treatment. The presence of antibodies did not affect overall disease outcome.
Per Soelberg Sorensen comments: "Our findings suggest that the presence of neutralising antibodies against interferon beta reduces the clinical effect of the drug. In patients who are not doing well on interferon beta, the presence of such antibodies should prompt consideration about a change of treatment to other drug therapies such as glatiramer acetate or mitoxantrone."
Lancet
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Researcher tricks immune system in diabetic mice
The body's immune system hates strangers. When its security patrol spots a foreign cell, it annihilates it.
In the war against diseases, nerve cells need their armor
In a new study, researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), McGill University, and the Université de Montréal have discovered an essential mechanism for the maintenance of the normal structure of myelin, the protective covering that insulates and supports nerve cells (neurons).
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Multiple sclerosis research charges ahead with new mouse model of disease
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Lung airway cells activate vitamin D and increase immune response
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Type-1 diabetes not so much bad genes as good genes behaving badly, Stanford research shows
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Phase IIb data show that BG-12 significantly reduced brain lesions in multiple sclerosis
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New hope for multiple sclerosis sufferers
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Genetic analysis predicts whether liver cancer likely to recur
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