Immunotherapy for Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis is the most common cause of non-traumatic neurological disability affecting young adults in the northern hemisphere. Recent technological advances in immunology, molecular biology and neuroimaging have accelerated our understanding of the pathogenesis of this disorder. Improvements in clinical trial methodology will soon allow researchers to test therapeutic agents in a fraction of the time traditionally required to study therapeutic claims in multiple sclerosis. The recent approval of interferon beta-1b by the US Food and Drug Administration has already had a profound effect on clinical trials in progress and on the manner in which neurologists in the US treat multiple sclerosis outside the confines of clinical trials. It will certainly be difficult to perform placebo-controlled clinical trials in the future.