Project description:Several treatments are currently available for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. Among them, interferon (IFN) beta remains a valid treatment approach because of its good benefit/risk profile. Due to the need for frequent administration (weekly, at a minimum), the use of IFN beta is limited by uncomfortable side effects that could reduce adherence to and persistence with the treatment. The use of subcutaneous polyethylene glycol (PEG)ylated interferon beta-1a (PEG-IFN) has been proposed to offer a better combination of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles and therapy-related side effects. A 125 μg dose of PEG-IFN given every 2 or 4 weeks was tested in two Phase I studies and shown to be as safe and efficient as IFN beta-1a but with a longer half-life. A Phase III trial (ADVANCE) comparing 125 μg of PEG-IFN given every 2 or 4 weeks with placebo in 1,512 patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis showed significant reductions in both the annualized relapse rate (ARR) and the occurrence of new or newly enlarged T2 brain lesions in both experimental groups versus placebo after the first year. Moreover, 38% fewer patients showed progression of disability (P=0.04) in the PEG-IFN groups. During the second year, the ARR was further reduced in the PEG-IFN 2-week treatment group (0.230 at 1 year versus 0.178 at 2 years) and was maintained in the 4-week treatment group. Patients who received immediate PEG-IFN treatment showed improved clinical efficacy (ARR, risk of relapse, 12-week disability progression) and magnetic resonance imaging parameters (new T2 and newly enlarging lesions, gadolinium-positive lesions) compared with those with delayed treatment. The effects were more evident with the 2-week dose for all endpoints considered. Furthermore, PEG-IFN was well tolerated, and no new safety concerns arose. In conclusion, PEG-IFN has good efficacy and a good safety profile. The available data support the use of PEG-IFN as a suitable therapeutic option in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.
Project description:In Brazil, inclusion and exclusion of health technologies within the Unified Health System (SUS) is the responsibility of the National Committee for Health Technology Incorporation (CONITEC). A recent Cochrane systematic review demonstrated that intramuscular interferon beta 1a (IFN-?-1a-IM) was inferior to the other beta interferons (IFN-?s) for multiple sclerosis (MS). As a result, CONITEC commissioned an analysis to review possible disinvestment within SUS. The objective of this paper is to describe the disinvestment process for IFN-?-1a-IM in Brazil. The first assessment comprised a literature review and mixed treatment comparison meta-analysis. The outcome of interest was the proportion of relapse-free patients in 2 years. This analysis confirmed the inferiority of IFN-?-1a-IM. Following this, CONITEC recommended disinvestment, with the decision sent for public consultation. More than 3000 contributions were made on CONITEC's webpage, most of them against the preliminary decision. As a result, CONITEC commissioned a study to assess the effectiveness of IFN-?-1a-IM among Brazilian patients in routine clinical care. The second assessment involved an 11-year follow-up of a non-concurrent cohort of 12,154 MS patients developed by deterministic-probabilistic linkage of SUS administrative databases. The real-world assessment further demonstrated that IFN-?-1a-IM users had a statistically higher risk of treatment failure, defined as treatment switching or relapse treatment or death, with the assessment showing that IFN-?-1a-IM was inferior to the other IFN-?s and to glatiramer acetate in both direct and indirect analysis. In the drug ranking with 40,000 simulations, IFN-?-1a-IM was the worst option, with a success rate of only 152/40,000. Following this, CONITEC decided to exclude the intramuscular presentation of IFN-? from the current MS treatment guidelines, giving patients who are currently on this treatment the option of continuing until treatment failure. In conclusion, we believe this is the first example of this new disinvestment process in action, providing an exemplar for other treatments in Brazil as well as other countries.
Project description:Changes of intestinal permeability (IP) have been extensively investigated in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and celiac disease (CD), underpinned by a known unbalance between microbiota, IP and immune responses in the gut. Recently the influence of IP on brain function has greatly been appreciated. Previous works showed an increased IP that preceded experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis development and worsened during disease with disruption of TJ. Moreover, studying co-morbidity between Crohn's disease and MS, a report described increased IP in a minority of cases with MS. In a recent work we found that an alteration of IP is a relatively frequent event in relapsing-remitting MS, with a possible genetic influence on the determinants of IP changes (as inferable from data on twins); IP changes included a deficit of the active mechanism of absorption from intestinal lumen. The results led us to hypothesize that gut may contribute to the development of MS, as suggested by another previous work of our group: a population of CD8+CD161high T cells, belonging to the mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells, a gut- and liver-homing subset, proved to be of relevance for MS pathogenesis. We eventually suggest future lines of research on IP in MS: studies on IP changes in patients under first-line oral drugs may result useful to improve their therapeutic index; correlating IP and microbiota changes, or IP and blood-brain barrier changes may help clarify disease pathogenesis; exploiting the IP data to disclose co-morbidities in MS, especially with CD and IBD, may be important for patient care.
Project description:It is fundamentally unknown how normal cellular processes or responses to extracellular stimuli may invoke polyadenylation and degradation of ncRNA substrates or if human disease processes exhibit defects in polyadenylation of ncRNA substrates as part of their pathogenesis. Our results demonstrate that mononuclear cells from subjects with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) exhibit pervasive increases in levels of polyadenylated ncRNAs including Y1 RNA, 18S and 28S rRNA, and U1, U2, and U4 snRNAs and these defects are unique to RRMS. Defects in expression of both Ro60 and La proteins in RRMS appear to contribute to increased polyadenylation of ncRNAs. Further, IFN-β1b, a common RRMS therapy, restores both Ro60 and La levels to normal as well as levels of polyadenylated Y1 RNA and U1 snRNA suggesting that aberrant polyadenylation of ncRNA substrates may have pathogenic consequences.