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Biotech / Medical : Biogen -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Beltropolis Boy who wrote (869)	2/19/1999 9:49:00 AM
From: Harold Engstrom	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1686

Abstract below shows INFb treatment for secondary progressive patients is important and effective. Notes tie in to INFg production drop-off. Interferon-gamma secretion by peripheral blood T-cell subsets in multiple sclerosis: correlation with disease phase and interferon-beta therapy. Becher B, Giacomini PS, Pelletier D, McCrea E, Prat A, Antel JP Neuroimmunology Unit, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Quebec, Canada. [Medline record in process] Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) is implicated as a participant in the immune effector and regulatory mechanisms considered to mediate the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS). We have used an intracellular cytokine staining technique to demonstrate that the proportion of ex vivo peripheral blood CD4 and CD8 T-cell subsets expressing IFN-gamma is increased in secondary progressing (SP) MS patients, whereas the values in untreated relapsing-remitting (RR) MS patients are reduced compared with those of controls. Patients treated with interferon-beta (IFN-beta) have an even more significant reduction in the percentage of IFN-gamma-secreting cells. The finding that the number of IFN-gamma-expressing CD8 cells is increased in SPMS patients, a group with reduced functional suppressor activity, and is most significantly reduced by IFN-beta therapy, which increases suppressor activity, indicates that IFN-gamma secretion by CD8 T cells and functional suppressor defects attributed to this cell subset in MS can be dissociated.