Multiple Sclerosis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Multiple Sclerosis, including details on diagnosis, symptoms, treatment, prognosis. | ||||||||
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Interferon-beta therapy reduces CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell reactivity in multiple sclerosis.Zafranskaya M, Oschmann P, Engel R, Weishaupt A, van Noort JM, Jomaa H, Eberl M Biochemisches Institut, Infektiologie, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Germany. Therapy with interferon-beta (IFN-beta) has well-established clinical effects in multiple sclerosis (MS), albeit the immunomodulatory mechanisms are not fully understood. We assessed the prevalence and functional capacity of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in healthy donors, and in untreated and IFN-beta-treated MS patients, in response to myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG). The proportion of CD45RO+ memory T cells was higher in MS patients than in healthy donors, but returned to normal values upon therapy with IFN-beta. While CD45RO+ CD4+ T cells from all three groups responded to MOG in vitro, untreated patients showed augmented proliferative responses compared to healthy individuals and IFN-beta treatment reduced this elevated reactivity back to the values observed in healthy donors. Similarly, the response of CD45RO+ CD8+ T cells to MOG was strongest in untreated patients and decreased to normal values upon immunotherapy. Overall, the frequency of peripheral CD45RO+ memory T cells ex vivo correlated with the strength of the cellular in vitro response to MOG in untreated patients but not in healthy donors or IFN-beta-treated patients. Compared with healthy individuals, responding CD4+ and CD8+ cells were skewed towards a type 1 cytokine phenotype in untreated patients, but towards a type 2 phenotype under IFN-beta therapy. Our data suggest that the beneficial effect of IFN-beta in MS might be the result of the suppression or depletion of autoreactive, pro-inflammatory memory T cells in the periphery. Assessment of T-cell subsets and their reactivity to MOG may represent an important diagnostic tool for monitoring successful immunotherapy in MS. Published 11 April 2007 in Immunology, 121(1): 29-39.
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