Conclusions
Our clinical results show a high clinical efficacy of tryptophan-IA comparable to PE in the treatment of MS relapses refractory to corticosteroids. Furthermore, our experimental data suggest several possible effects on MS pathogenesis: not only removal of immunoglobulins and complement from plasma, but also reduced levels of circulating autoantigens and regulatory proteins. We suggest that more prospective studies are needed to confirm and extend our results, to give new insights into this treatment approach, to optimize therapeutic IA protocols and, lastly, to investigate further therapeutic principles, for example, T-cell reactivity to MBP before and after IA.
Acknowledgment
The authors thank the nursing staff from the medical intensive care unit 1022 as well as E. Brunst-Knoblich and A. Krüger (both Department of Nephrology & Rheumatology, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Germany) for excellent technical support.
Abbreviations
AE, Affected eye; CD5L, CD5 ligand; EDSS, Expanded Disability Status Scale; IA, Immunoadsorption; IFN, Interferon; Ig, Immunoglobulin; IL-2R, Interleukin-2 receptor; ISS, Incapacity Status Scale; kDa, kiloDalton; MBP, Myelin basic protein; MS, Multiple sclerosis; PBS, Phosphate-buffered saline; PE, Plasma exchange; PMF, Peptide mass fingerprinting; sIL-2R, Soluble interleukin-2 receptor.
Authors' contributions
MJK: design of the study, acquisition, analyses and interpretation of the data, drafting the manuscript, final approval. DT: acquisition and analyses of the data. MB: interpretation of the data, revising the manuscript. HD: analyses of the data. KJ: analyses of the data, revising the manuscript. DF: acquisition of the data, revising the manuscript. RK: design of the study, revising the manuscript. GAM: interpretation of the data, revising the manuscript. BK: design of the study, acquisition, analyses and interpretation of the data, drafting the manuscript, final approval. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
J Neuroinflammation. 2012;9(80) © 2012 BioMed Central, Ltd.
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