title: Beneficial effect of interferon-beta treatment in patients with multiple sclerosis is associated with transient increase in serum IL-6 level in response to interferon-beta injection.
abstract: In order to predict the clinical benefit of interferon-beta (IFN-beta) to patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), the following markers were investigated; (1) chronological change of cytokines (IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha, IL-6, IL-10, and TGF-beta) after administration of IFN-beta, (2) untoward effects of IFN-beta such as headache and arthralgia, (3) backgrounds of the patients such as age and relapse rate, (4) efficacy of IFN-beta therapy assessed by the change of relapse rate and progression of disability. Chronological blood sampling was performed 0, 10, and 24 h after injection of IFN-beta. The increase of serum IL-6 level in response to IFN-beta administration was associated with headache, arthralgia, relapse rate before treatment, and disability score at the initiation of the therapy. Significant association of change of serum TNF-alpha with age and headache was also observed. The important finding in this study was that patients with a transient increase in IL-6 in response to IFN-beta showed a slow disease progression. This result suggests that this transient increase in the serum IL-6 predicts favorable response to IFN-beta treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-2 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakatsuji
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakano
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moriya
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kishigami
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tatsumi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tada
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sadahiro
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Naka
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mitani
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Funauchi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Azuma
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kinoshita
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kajiyama
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yuasa
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaido
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Naba
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hazama
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sakoda
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000097:blood; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007267:Injections; D016899:Interferon-beta / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000097:blood* / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D015850:Interleukin-6; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D016899:Interferon-beta