June 5, 2013

expert reaction to new research into multiple sclerosis treatment

A paper published in Science Translational Medicine reported a successful Phase I clinical trial which tested a treatment to “reset” the immune systems of multiple sclerosis patients, finding it reduced their antimyelin immune responses by 50 to 75%.

Prof Paul Matthews, Head of Division of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London, said:

“The investigators have attached a special mix of proteins that look like those of myelin, a primary target of attack in MS, to some of the body’s own cells.  They show that injection of this mix into people with MS appears safe and that it can successfully retrain immune cells not to respond to the proteins.

“Is this a treatment for MS?  Much more work is needed.  Disease activity continued in patients in the study so it may need higher doses or selection of a particular group.  Nonetheless, it is important to pursue this approach as it still promises a way of harnessing the body’s own controls to selectively and more safely stop the disease than is possible now.”

Dr Susan Kohlhaas, Head of Biomedical Research, MS Society, said:

“Treatments that could stop the progression of MS are urgently needed and this is a priority for the MS Society.  Being able to specifically stop the immune system attacking myelin but still keeping it fully functional poses an exciting potential therapy for people with MS.  We were interested to see this novel way of re-programming the immune system shown to be well tolerated in this very small study.  More research is now needed and we eagerly await the results of any future larger clinical trials of this therapy.”

‘Antigen-specific tolerance by autologous myelin peptide-coupled cells – a Phase 1 trial in multiple sclerosis’ by Andreas Lutterotti et al., published in Science Translational Medicine on Wednesday 5 June 2013.