An experimental treatment for multiple sclerosis that targets a portion of the immune system not previously subjected to therapy reduced damaging lesions of the nervous system by 91 percent and relapses of the disease by 58 percent, researchers reported today.
A single course of the drug, called rituximab, helped patients for the full 48 weeks of the trial and suggests a new way to attack relapsing-remitting MS, the most common form of the disease.
Researchers said they remained concerned about potential long-term side effects of the drug, which is used to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and rheumatoid arthritis under the brand name Rituxan.
If its safety and efficacy can be confirmed in a larger study, rituximab “looks like it will be a strong addition to our armamentarium for treating MS,” said Dr. John Rickert, executive vice president of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, who was not involved in the study.
The results revealed an unexpected role of white blood cells, called B cells, in causing the damage produced by MS, opening the door to a number of potential new therapeutic strategies, wrote Henry McFarland of the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke in an editorial accompanying the study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In MS, the body’s own immune system attacks the protective layer of myelin around nerve fibers, producing short circuits. Symptoms include visual disturbances, difficulty walking, fatigue and loss of coordination, sensation, and bowel and bladder control.
