MS medication triggers previously unknown serious side effects

Heavy side effects discovered in approved drug
The treatment options for multiple sclerosis (MS) are still very limited, but some drugs have been explicitly approved for the treatment of MS and so patients expect the benefits of taking it. This also applies to the active substance alemtuzumab, which is commercially available under the name Lemtrada. However, scientists from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) conclude in a recent study that the drug can massively worsen the condition of patients.

The research team headed by Professor Aiden Haghikia and Professor dr. Ralf Gold from the RUB Clinic for Neurology at the St. Josef Hospital has found a previously unknown, serious side effect of the approved MS medication. The active ingredient alemtuzumab can significantly worsen the symptoms of multiple sclerosis patients, the RUB scientists warn. The researchers have published the results of their research in the journal "The Lancet Neurology".

Physicians of the RUB have proven hitherto unknown, serious side effect in an approved MS drug. (Image: DOC RABE Media / fotolia.com)

Various medications approved for MS treatment
In MS patients, the insulating layer of nerve fibers, the so-called myelin, attacked by the immune system and the cell processes are permanently damaged, the scientists explain the disease. Although ten different classes of drugs have been specifically approved for MS treatment, a cure based on current treatment options is not possible. Only the progression of the disease can be slowed down and the symptoms can be alleviated.

Serious, unpredictable side effects
The approved drugs also include the active ingredient alemtuzumab, which is used in severe disease relapses. Alemtuzumab docks onto a protein on the surface of certain immune cells, causing them to die. Although it was already known from the approval studies that a quarter of the treated patients usually shows slight side effects, in which immune cells - primarily in the thyroid gland - directed against endogenous cells, but the researchers are now discovering further serious side effects of the MS drug, according to the release the rub. "The multiple sclerosis (MS) drug alemtuzumab can cause severe, unpredictable side effects," report Prof. Dr. med. Haghikia and Prof. dr. gold.

Condition of the patient worsened significantly
The scientists write in the prestigious journal "Lancet Neurology" about two patients in whom alemtuzumab significantly aggravated the symptoms. They received alemtuzumab therapy because they suffered from a highly active MS and, in spite of multiple prior therapies, had severe attacks of inflammation in the central nervous system. However, the symptoms had worsened significantly six months after the therapy. In "MRI investigations, the researchers discovered a kind of new mode of inflammation: they found areas in the brain in which the contrast medium had been incorporated into the white substance in a ring," reports the RUB. These patients had previously not shown in their medical history.

Side effects can be contained
The cause of the deterioration of the disease was, according to the researchers in both cases, treatment with the MS drug. However, the side effects could be controlled successfully with a targeted counter therapy, write the scientists. It can be assumed that the applied measures could also benefit other patients who are being treated with alemtuzumab, the RUB researchers continue. (Fp)