Abstract
The authors performed a longitudinal evaluation of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, during 1 year of therapy with interferon-β (IFN-β), by clinical examination and detection of presence in the blood and viral load of MS-associated retrovirus (MSRV), by MSRVenv-specific, fully quantitative, real time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). MSRV load in the blood was directly related to MS duration and fell below detection limits within 3 months of IFN therapy; one patient had strong progression, accompanied by total MSRV rescue. These findings suggest that evaluation of plasmatic MSRV could be considered the first prognostic marker for the individual patient, to monitor disease progression and therapy outcome.
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This work was supported partly by grants from Fondazione Italiana Sclerosi Multipla Onlus (grant no. 2003/R/21), Ministero Universià e Ricerca PRIN 2005. G.M. was supported by a training research fellowship of Fondazione Italiana Sclerosi Multipla Onlus (no. 2005/B/2).
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Mameli, G., Serra, C., Astone, V. et al. Inhibition of multiple sclerosis-associated retrovirus as biomarker of interferon therapy. Journal of NeuroVirology 14, 73–77 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1080/13550280701801107
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13550280701801107