Significance of neutralizing antibodies to immunomodulatory therapy and their laboratory analysis in multiple sclerosis

• Published in: Ideggyógyászati szemle Vol. 59; no. 5-6; pp. 156 - 162
• Main Authors: Seres, Erika, Vécsei, László
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Hungarian
• Published: Hungary 20.05.2006
• Subjects: Animals; Autoantibodies - blood; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Glatiramer Acetate; Humans; Immunosuppressive Agents - therapeutic use; Interferon Type I - immunology; Interferon Type I - therapeutic use; Interferon-beta - immunology; Interferon-beta - therapeutic use; Interferon-gamma - immunology; Interferon-gamma - therapeutic use; Interferons - immunology; Interferons - therapeutic use; Multiple Sclerosis - drug therapy; Multiple Sclerosis - immunology; Peptides - therapeutic use; Recombinant Proteins
• ISSN: 0019-1442

Interferon-alpha, -beta, and -gamma have been used for the management of several diseases with varying clinical effects. Like many other proteins, all interferon species are potentially immunogenic, especially those produced by recombinant gene technologies. A reliable screening assay for anti-interferon-beta antibodies is suggested for patients with multiple sclerosis receiving interferon-beta therapy. Natural interferon-beta is a glycosylated 166 amino acid 25 kDa protein, recombinant interferon-beta is available for therapy as 1a and 1b products. Both preparations induce anti-interferon-beta antibodies, detectable in the serum of interferon-beta-treated patients with multiple sclerosis. The question of which assay is optimal for testing for anti-interferon-beta antibodies in interferon-beta-treated patients is unsettled. Two types of antibody assays are generally used: those measuring binding antibodies and those measuring neutralizing antibodies. The findings suggest that high titers of both binding and neutralizing antibodies reduce the clinical efficacy of interferon-beta in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, which is important for the long-term efficacy of these drugs. Treatment with glatiramer acetate has also been shown to induce the development of "reactive antibodies" in patients with multiple sclerosis. This article briefly describes some of the findings concerning anti-interferon binding and neutralizing antibodies.