A new study published in the March edition of the Lancet Neurology highlights the therapeutic benefits of daclizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody that shows promise in reducing the amount of new or enlarged brain lesions in patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS).

Monoclonal antibodies are immune system proteins that bind to target cells triggering the immune system to attack those cells. Daclizumab specifically binds to CD25––a protein that is expressed on activated T cells––resulting in a significantly lower number of new or enlarged MS lesions.

Researchers also found that patients treated with daclizumab had a seven to eight times higher number of immune cells called CD56bright natural killer cells (NK cells). Research has shown that untreated patients with MS have fewer numbers of these NK cells than healthy individuals.

These promising results were reported in a phase II clinical trial of 230 relapsing patients from 51 centers in the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy and Spain who were randomly selected to receive a placebo or a high or low dose of the antibody while taking interferon beta medications.

Further study is needed, however, to understand the long-term risks and benefits of daclizumab, which caused nausea and infections among some patients.

For more information, please visit http://healthcare.utah.edu/publicaffairs/news/current/John%20Rose%20MS%20Study.html.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 11:06 am and is filed under Clinical Trials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.