AAN 2013 San Diego: daclizumab extension study results

"The following is my platform presentation from the AAN in San Diego. I presented it yesterday afternoon. You may find the information in the slides useful."



"Why is daclizumab so interesting? It has a greater impact on disability progression than you would expect from it impact on relapses. It also has a very interesting mechanism of action; it boosts a population of cells called natural killer cells (NK-cells) that are part of the innate or hard-wired immune system. NK-cells have several functions one of which is an anti-viral role. Could the fact that daclizumab increases NK-cells, which correlates with the drug's effectiveness, be telling us something fundamental about MS? Yes, I think so. Could MS be due to a virus and daclizumab is boosting the anti-viral response against this virus? Yes, this is the premise that underpins The Charcot Project."

"Because of daclizumab's impact on disability progression, that may be independent of relapses, it needs to be tried in SPMS. Let's hope Biogen-Idec and AbbVie have the will, and then the resources, to take-on SPMS or even PPMS with daclizumab."

CoI: multiple

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