PURPOSE The efficacy of statins in combination with interferon therapy in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) is reviewed. METHODS A systematic literature search was conducted through September 2011 to identify randomized controlled trials that evaluated the effect of combination statin-interferon therapy compared with interferon therapy alone in patients with MS. Trials had to report at le...

Interferons alpha and beta have been used worldwide for a few decades, altering the natural history of several severe diseases including hepatitis C, cancer and immune-mediated conditions such as multiple sclerosis. The adverse events profile of interferons is well established, but only isolated reports of ophthalmological complications of interferon therapy have been published. The objective o...

BACKGROUND/AIM A cost-effectiveness analyses of immunomodulatory treatments for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) in developed countries have shown that any benefit from these drugs is achieved at very high cost. The aim of our study was to compare the cost-effectiveness of five treatment strategies in patients diagnosed with RRMS (symptom management alone and in combination with su...

Changes in cellular functions in response to drug therapy are mediated by specific transcriptional profiles resulting from the induction or repression in the activity of a number of genes, thereby modifying the preexisting gene activity pattern of the drug-targeted cell(s). Recombinant human interferon beta (rIFNbeta) is routinely used to control exacerbations in multiple sclerosis patients wit...

BACKGROUND In a phase 1 study, we investigated whether interferon beta reduced endothelial damage in patients with cardiac persistence of human parvovirus B19 (B19V) infection. METHODS AND RESULTS In vitro, B19V infected cultivated endothelial cells (ECs), which led to a reduction in their viability (P = .007). Interferon beta suppressed B19V replication by 63% (P = .008) in ECs and increased...

Interferon-beta is a mainstay therapy of demyelinating diseases, but its effects are incomplete in human multiple sclerosis and several of its animal models. In this study, we demonstrate dramatic improvements of clinical, histological, and laboratory parameters in in vivo mouse models of demyelinating disease through combination therapy with IFN-beta plus vitamin B(12) cyanocobalamin (B(12)CN)...

The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate therapeutic effects in a cohort of 32 patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) that were continuously treated with interferon beta-1b during a three-year period and to compare the results obtained with literature data available. Additionally, dropouts and side effects were assessed. The annual relapse rate at three years of tr...

Biological drugs that have a protein or peptide structure provide new and highly eff e c t i v e therapies for a number of conditions and diseases, but their prolonged use in patients gives rise to new problems and questions, amongst them the possible occurrence of neutralizing antibodies (Nabs). We discuss some aspects of this particular problem in relation to interferon-beta therapy of multip...