The Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) announced today that the presence of neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) has a significant effect on interferon beta therapy and this issue warrants the attention of health care providers and patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).

The findings, presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and National Association of Science Writers (NASW) annual meeting, state that when an MS patient develops NAbs, his/her body perceives these protein-based therapies to be "foreign," like an allergen or infection causing organism and mounts an immune response against them, basically rendering the therapy less effective.

According to Andrew R. Pachner, M.D., Professor, Department of Neurology and Neurosciences at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Medical School, "Patients who develop NAbs show higher relapse rates, an increased number of enlarging brain lesions, and new lesion formation compared with NAb-negative patients."