Interferon b helps
Multiple Sclerosis
Natalizumab slows down MS attacks
Interferon b treatment helps multiple sclerosis
recovery and survival. That's according to the Interferon
b PRISMS study by Dr George Ebers, Division of Neurology, London
Health Sciences Centre Ontario in the Lancet (7 November 1998).
(Note: Natalizumab also seems to slow down MS. David
Miller at the Institute of Neurology in London has found that
monthly injections reduce the number of new MS lesions by 90%
compared to those given a placebo treatment. Natalizumab seems
to work by preventing immune cells from crossing the blood brain
barrier, which is further evidence that white cells are involved
in attacking the fatty insulator myelin sheath surrounding normal
brain fibres. (New England Journal of Medicine vol 348, p15))
Prof Ludwig Kappos also found the same Interferon
b treatment effect in the European Study Group. Both found interferon
b-1a reduces clinical relapses in multiple sclerosis, delays the
time before there is serious disability and reduces the number
of new episodes.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) affects 1.1 million world-wide.
It is a progressive, disabling disease of the central nervous
system which is incurable. The first interferon study involved
560 people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, the second
consisted of 718 with secondary-progressive MS followed for three
years, randomly allocated to placebo and interferon b. Calls
are now being made for governments to make interferon b available
immediately for all with multiple sclerosis but it is very expensive.
What is the truth about MS progression?
The answer is that every person is different.
However large studies reveal common patterns. MS results
from damage to the sheath around nerve fibres (demyelination)
in the central nervous system. Typicla features are loss
of vision (may be partial, patchy and with good recovery), weakness,
numbness and changes in mood or personality. The classic
features of multiple sclerosis are a sudden event which is obvious,
with almost total or apparently complete recovery. We don't
know what causes MS.
Relapsing-remitting MS - 85% of patients have
one or more episodes followed by complete or partial recovery.
Patients are stable between relapses.
Progressive MS - in 15% of multiple sclerosis cases
the condition continues to worsen progressively.
Secondary-progressive MS - within ten years, half
of those with relapsing-remitting MS experience gradually worsenning
disability, with or without obvious episodes of further nerve
damage.
e-mails: kappos@ubaclu.unibas.ch
and gebers@lhsc.on.ca
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