U. study offers hope for people with MS

SALT LAKE CITY — There is new hope for patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis after an international team of researchers, including a neurologist at the University of Utah, found that adding a humanized monoclonal antibody to the standard treatment regimen reduces the number of new or enlarged brain lesions.

Because approximately 85 percent of MS patients are initially diagnosed with relapsing MS, the new antibody, called daclizumab, offers hope of a reduction in disease activity to them.

"Previous research has shown that treatment with daclizumab reduced multiple-sclerosis disease activity," said Dr. John W. Rose, a professor of neurology at the U. School of Medicine and one of the study's authors. "Our work in the CHOICE trial shows that daclizumab significantly reduces MS lesion formation in people with active relapsing disease."

The study was published online earlier this week in the March edition of The Lancet Neurology.

Rose and his colleagues performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study at 51 centers in the U.S., Canada, Germany, Italy and Spain with 230 patients who have relapsing MS. They were taking interferon beta and were randomly assigned to receive add-on treatment with high-dose daclizumab, low-dose daclizumab, or placebo.

MS is a debilitating disease in which the body's immune system attacks the fatty substance that surrounds and protects the nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord. The resulting damage interferes with the transmission of nerve signals between the brain and spinal cord and other parts of the body, producing a variety of symptoms that include problems with balance, coordination, vision and even mental function.

Researchers said further study is needed to clarify whether the risk-benefit of daclizumab is better when the drug is used alone or in combination with interferon beta, as well as to determine the optimum dose and length of treatment needed.