Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Molecular oracles for multiple sclerosis therapy

Fewer than half of patients with multiple sclerosis respond to interferon-b, one of the most widely prescribed therapies. The discovery that different subtypes of T cells may be involved in disease development in each affected individual suggests that it may be possible to predict therapeutic success by determining a patient's cytokine profile (pages 406–412).

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Differential effects of IFN-β treatment in subgroups of human multiple sclerosis (ms) and in a mouse model, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE).

References

  1. Rudick, R.A. & Polman, C.H. Lancet Neurol. 8, 545–559 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Axtell, R.C. et al. Nat. Med. 16, 406–412 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Steinman, L. J. Exp. Med. 205, 1517–1522 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Mestas, J. & Hughes, C.C.W. J. Immunol. 172, 2731–2738 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Tzartos, J.S. et al. Am. J. Pathol. 172, 146–155 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Durelli, L. et al. Ann. Neurol. 65, 499–509 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Ramgolam, V.S., Sha, Y.G., Jin, J.P., Zhang, X. & Markovic-Plese, S. J. Immunol. 183, 5418–5427 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Byrnes, A.A., McArthur, J.C. & Karp, C.L. Ann. Neurol. 51, 165–174 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Wandinger, K.P. et al. Lancet 361, 2036–2043 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Comabella, M. et al. Brain 132, 3353–3365 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Baranzini, S.E. et al. PLoS Biol. 3, e2 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Bielekova, B. & Martin, R. Brain 127, 1463–1478 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Part of H.W.’s research have been supported by Novartis and Morphosys. He has received speaker’s honoraria from multiple companies. R.H. received consultancy fees or grant support from pharmaceutical companies marketing or developing treatments for multiple sclerosis, including Bayer, Teva, Sanofi, Biogen-Idec, Merck-Serono and Novartis.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wekerle, H., Hohlfeld, R. Molecular oracles for multiple sclerosis therapy. Nat Med 16, 376–377 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0410-376

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0410-376

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing