Antibody as Multiple Sclerosis Treatment

Just over three quarters of Multiple Sclerosis patients who were treated with the antibody alemtuzumab were found to have not suffered from relapses after two years. The antibody appeared to be more effective during initial trial treatments, but it was still shown to lessen the amount of brain tissue loss.

Currently, the only treatments for MS include drugs which slow the disease and don't reverse the effects. Alemtuzumab lowered the T and B cell count, and when the lymphocyte numbers returned back to normal there were fewer of the cells that participated in destroying the myelin sheath.

Despite the benefits there are drawbacks to using the antibody as a treatment. One fifth of patients experienced autoimmune disease, and less than one percent developed a life threatening disease as a result of the treatment.

This article interested me because we were talking about MS earlier this semester during one of the SNBAL classes. At the time of the class I didn't imagine that researchers would have already developed a method that can reverse the effects of the disease. It's interesting to learn that what you thought would take years to develop is actually a reality.

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/111024/full/news.2011.609.html