Verweij Cornelis L, Vosslamber Saskia
Department of Pathology, Section of Inflammatory Disease Profiling, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Discov Med. 2013 Jan;15(80):51-60.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common inflammatory disease of the central nervous system. The disease is characterized by progressive neurological dysfunction due to demyelination of the nerves, which leads to disability. Currently, no curative therapy is available and patients are subjected to a prolonged course of treatment. Interferon-β (IFNβ) was the first agent to show clinical efficacy in the treatment of MS, and is still the best available therapy. Unfortunately, clinical experience indicates that approximately 40% of the patients do not or only poorly respond to IFNβ treatment. Recent advances revealed the presence of an activated type I IFN pathway in a subset of treatment naïve patients with relapsing remitting MS (RRMS), as shown by the presence of an "IFN signature" and type I IFN bioactivity in the blood of these patients. Evidence exists that quantification of the IFN signature in RRMS is informative as a biomarker to predict the clinical response to IFNβ. In this review we summarize the current evidence of type I IFN activation in RRMS and its clinical relevance.
多发性硬化症（MS）是中枢神经系统最常见的炎症性疾病。该疾病的特征是由于神经脱髓鞘导致进行性神经功能障碍，进而导致残疾。目前，尚无治愈性疗法，患者需接受长期治疗。干扰素-β（IFNβ）是首个在MS治疗中显示出临床疗效的药物，并且仍是现有的最佳疗法。不幸的是，临床经验表明，约40%的患者对IFNβ治疗无反应或反应不佳。最近的研究进展显示，在一部分未经治疗的复发缓解型MS（RRMS）患者中存在激活的I型干扰素途径，这些患者血液中存在“干扰素特征”和I型干扰素生物活性即可证明。有证据表明，RRMS中干扰素特征的量化作为预测对IFNβ临床反应的生物标志物具有参考价值。在本综述中，我们总结了RRMS中I型干扰素激活的当前证据及其临床相关性。
