The findings were replicated in serum from human patients with relapsing-remitting MS, and if verified in an expanded human trial, a simple blood test could be developed to determine which type of T helper cell is predominantly responsible for the disease in a patient, and therefore whether – and, perhaps, which – treatment would be of benefit.
The clinical results from PreCISe were significant, but modest, and Dr. Raman said that he is confident that the benefits of early treatment would have been even greater if the patients could have been stratified by disease type and treated accordingly.
“The findings that we reported in the Nature Medicine paper, when validated and commercialized, would achieve that objective,” he said.
Dr. Comi reported that he has received personal compensation for advisory board and consulting activities from Teva Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, Merck-Serono, and Bayer Schering. He has also received honoraria for speaking activities from these companies, as well as from Biogen-Dompé. Dr. Filippi also reported financial relationship with many of these companies, including Teva. Dr. Raman reported that his research was supported by grants from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the National Institutes of Health.