First line drugs and Genes not much NEDA

Sellebjerg F, Søndergaard HB, Koch-Henriksen N, Sørensen PS, Oturai AB.Prediction of response to interferon therapy in multiple sclerosis. Acta Neurol Scand. 2014 Jun 18. doi: 10.1111/ane.12269. [Epub ahead of print]
OBJECTIVE:Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the genes encoding interferon response factor (IRF)-5, IRF-8 and glypican-5 (GPC5) have been associated with disease activity in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients treated with interferon (IFN)-β. We analysed whether SNPs in the IRF5, IRF8 and GPC5 genes are associated with clinical disease activity in MS patients beginning de novo treatment with IFN-β.
METHODS:The SNPs rs2004640, rs3807306 and rs4728142 in IRF5, rs13333054 and rs17445836 in IRF8 and rs10492503 in GPC5 were genotyped in 575 patients with relapsing-remitting MS followed prospectively after the initiation of their first treatment with IFN-β.
RESULTS:62% of patients experienced relapses during the first 2 years of treatment, and 32% had disability progression during the first 5 years of treatment. Patients with a pretreatment annualized relapse rate >1 had an increased risk of relapse (hazard ratio 1.53, 95% confidence interval 1.24-1.90) and progression (hazard ratio 1.48, 95% confidence interval 1.10-1.99) on treatment and patients with breakthrough relapses in the form of relapses during the first 2 years of treatment had an increased risk of progression during the first 5 years of treatment (hazard ratio 2.04, 95% confidence interval 1.47-2.85).The gene variants in IRF5, IRF8 and GPC5 were not associated with risk of relapse or disease progression.
CONCLUSIONS:Pretreatment relapse rate and clinical disease activity during the first 2 years of treatment may be associated with disease progression in MS patients treated with IFN-β. Genetic analysis of the studied gene variants do not provide additional information.



Predict who will respond and who will not respond to drugs is of interest to neuros treating you, but less of a concern to pharma who just want to sell to every one...which is rather disturbing that they are happy for you to pay for something that may be effectively useless. If you look in genes you maybe be able to work out who responds and who doesn't. This is called pharmacogenomics. Whilst this study they did not really find anything of interest in this respect it does show that 2% of patients experienced relapses during the first 2 years of treatment, and 32% had disability progression during the first 5 years of treatment and relapse history predicts relapse. This is hardly NEDA, is this what you want?

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