News
Interferon-Bèta study published in Nature Medicine
Prof. Polman c.s. makes seminal contribution to high impact report by showing biomarker levels in VUmc multiple sclerosis patients succesfully treated with Interferon (IF)
A group of opinion leading researchers recently submitted a study on putative role of IF in MS therapy to Nature Medicine in April 2009, but the reviewers and editors called for corroborating results from humans. Fortunately, the group of Chris Polman, and in particular colleagues Brigit A de Jong, Laura F van der Voort and Joep Killestein Chris H Polman at the VU University Medical Center, had just the right samples—26 blood collections stored in his freezer taken from individuals with multiple sclerosis before they started IFN-β treatment, as well as detailed records of who responded well to the drugs.
This group of Neuroscience Campus researchers found that those MS patients who benefited from the medicine had low levels of a TH17 cytokine, interleukin-17, before treatment began. The findings were in line with the researchers' animal data and now provide a path to the development of molecular screens for determining which patients will respond best to IFN-β therapy. “This is the first hint that there might be a biomarker that will give you a prediction of what will happen if you do the therapy”.
see article in Nature Medicine
