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.
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.
Nakatsuji
Y
Y
Department of Neurology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-2 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
Nakano
M
M
Moriya
M
M
Kishigami
H
H
Tatsumi
C
C
Tada
S
S
Sadahiro
S
S
Naka
T
T
Mitani
K
K
Funauchi
M
M
Azuma
T
T
Watanabe
S
S
Kinoshita
M
M
Kajiyama
K
K
Yuasa
Y
Y
Kaido
M
M
Takahashi
M P
MP
Naba
I
I
Hazama
T
T
Sakoda
S
S
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
D015850:Interleukin-6; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D016899:Interferon-beta