Immune treatment for MS shows promise

Date: Feb-07-2014A new treatment that boosts immunity to Epstein-Barr virus may benefit patients with

multiple sclerosis, according to the results of an Australian study published in the

Multiple Sclerosis Journal.

In their study report, Michael Pender, a professor at the University of Queensland School

of Medicine, Brisbane, and colleagues describe how a patient with advanced multiple sclerosis

(MS) experienced noticeable clinical improvement after receiving 6 weeks of the immunotherapy

treatment.

MS is an inflammatory disease, where the body's own immune system attacks and destroys

myelin, the protein that insulates the nerves in the spinal cord, brain and optic nerve and

stops the electrical signals they convey from leaking out.

As the disease advances, symptoms progress from mild numbness in the limbs to paralysis and

blindness.

Estimates from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society suggest MS affects around 400,000

Americans. In Australia, the number of people affected by the disease is thought to be over

23,000.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a virus of the herpes family and one of the most common viruses in humans. It affects

9 out of 10 people at some point in their lives and is best known as the cause of glandular

fever (infectious mononucleosis). EBV was the first human virus found to be associated with

cancer.

Prof. Pender has been researching MS for over 30 years and 10 years ago proposed the idea

that people with MS have impaired immunity to EBV.

First study to test EBV-specific adoptive immunotherapy in MS patient

In this latest study, he and his colleagues tested a new treatment that boosts the ability of

CD8 T cells in the immune system to fight against EBV. They believe the approach, called

adoptive immunotherapy, could potentially treat MS and other chronic autoimmune diseases.

The study had one patient, a 43-year-old man with secondary progressive MS. They gave him a

6-week course of the treatment, which appeared to produce no adverse side effects.

The treatment involves taking some of the patient's blood so the researchers can harvest some

of his own T cells and grow them in the lab together with an EBV vaccine. Then, the boosted cells

are transferred back to the patient intravenously.

The treatment was developed in the lab of study co-author Rajiv Khanna, a professor at the

QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, also in Brisbane, where Prof. Khanna uses it to treat

patients with EBV-related malignancy.

The patient started to show signs of clinical improvement within 2 weeks of starting

treatment. These improvements were still there 21 weeks later, at the most recent follow-up

point.

This is the first time the treatment, called EBV-specific adoptive immunotherapy, has been

used to treat a patient with progressive MS.

Prof. Pender says:

"The beneficial effect of boosting immunity to EBV by this treatment highlights the

importance of impaired immunity to EBV in the development of MS. We believe the treatment

corrects the impaired CD8 T cell immunity that allowed EBV infection to cause MS."

'An amazing change for the better'

The patient, Gary Allen, has been unable to walk or transfer himself without assistance since

2008, and he works full-time from his home in Brisbane. He had his first MS attack in 1994 and was

diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS in 2000, which later developed into secondary progressive

MS.

After receiving the treatment, he experienced a significant improvement in attention, memory,

thinking and hand function, a reduction in fatigue and painful spasms, and increased work

productivity.

Also, an MRI scan of his brain showed decreased disease activity, his cerebrospinal fluid

showed a decrease in antibodies, and at the latest follow-up, there was some improvement in leg

movement.

Mr. Allen says he can carry out everyday tasks more easily and is able to spend more time

with his son, and adds, "whether you look at my work, time with family or resurgent social life,

it's been an amazing change for the better."

The researchers say the treatment now needs to undergo a clinical trial to test its safety

and effectiveness in a larger sample of patients with varying forms of MS.

In February 2013, Medical News Today reported how another team of researchers in

the US discovered new clues to

Epstein-Barr virus that they hope will help researchers explore unexplained links between

EBV, autoimmune diseases, malaria and cancer.

Written by Catharine Paddock PhD




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