title: Multiple sclerosis: a review of existing therapy and future prospects.
abstract: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an incurable neurological illness that frequently causes chronic disability. Neurologists broach the diagnosis with dread. "I'll end up in a wheel chair" is the anguished cry of the newly diagnosed and mostly young patients. The past decade has improved our understanding of the immunopathogenesis of MS enormously. This has led to a plethora of clinical trials and the resultant emergence of several new drugs in various stages of development. In 1993, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Betaseron for the treatment of MS. Todate, this is the only drug approved by the FDA, specifically for the treatment of MS. However, it would not be too long before several other drugs are approved, leaving the neurologist bewildered having gone from a state of practically little to offer to a state of several options to choose from. This review discusses the status of current and future therapy in the treatment of MS. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common demyelinating disease of the human central nervous system (CNS). Medline includes over 13000 articles on MS since 1966 that exclude book chapters and other references. MS typically affects the youth and women more than men, between the ages of twenty and forty. Clinically, the illness is characterized into a relapsing-remitting (RR) or chronic progressive (CP) stage although more precisely defined stages exist for research purposes. It tends to follow a highly unpredictable course leading to chronic and sometimes devastating disability. More recently, follow up data suggested that the disease may fall into a pattern after several years. Despite decades of hectic research and better understanding of immunological mechanisms involving human CNS disease, the cause of MS remains unknown. However, it is widely believed that MS is the result of an autoimmune disorder in a genetically susceptible individual, mediated by autoreactive T cells that migrate into the CNS and initiate the inflammatory demyelinating lesion. Regardless of the plausibility of this theory and without going into details, several aspects of immune mediated pathology of MS remain unexplained. This is an attempt to review the status of current therapy and future prospects in the treatment of MS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA.
authors.forename: O A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Khan
mesh_terms: D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000324:Adrenocorticotropic Hormone / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000328:Adult; D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003524:Cyclosporins / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D016756:Immunoglobulins, Intravenous / Q000627:therapeutic use; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D007372:Interferons / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008297:Male; D008727:Methotrexate / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008775:Methylprednisolone / Q000627:therapeutic use; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000628:therapy*; D012106:Research
chemical_list: D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones; D000893:Anti-Inflammatory Agents; D003524:Cyclosporins; D016756:Immunoglobulins, Intravenous; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; D000324:Adrenocorticotropic Hormone; D007372:Interferons; D008775:Methylprednisolone; D008727:Methotrexate