Neurológia pre prax 6/2017

Biological therapy by Ocrelizumab (antiCD20) is surprisingly clinically effective in multiple sclerosis patients

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the severe inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease of central nervous system. Unfavorable natural course of MS is therapeutically changed by several effective drugs available. These drugs are in general targeting T cell system which is supposed to be critically involved in MS pathogenesis. It was surprising that very good clinical response was achieved in MS patients in large clinical trials using antiCD20 monoclonal antibody, ocrelizumab. CD20 molecule is specifically expressed on mature B cells only. It could be delineated from these results that MS immunopathogenesis is much complex as previously thought.

Keywords: multiple sclerosis, immunopathogenesis, B cell, biological therapy, antiCD20, ocrelizumab