During 3 years treatment of primary progressive multiple sclerosis with glatiramer acetate, specific antibodies switch from IgG1 to IgG4

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Glatiramer Acetate in the context of multiple sclerosis, published as a randomized controlled trial.

In this study the researchers analyzed the humoral immune response to glatiramer acetate in 16 GA-treated primary progressive MS patients and 9 placebo patients from the PROMiSe study.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 9 patients taking part.

PubMed tags the participants as both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Glatiramer Acetate group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Glatiramer Acetate, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Glatiramer Acetate could be set against what happens without it.

The methods mention a period of 3 years.

What Was Measured

In this study the researchers analyzed the humoral immune response to glatiramer acetate in 16 GA-treated primary progressive MS patients and 9 placebo patients from the PROMiSe study.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Antibody Specificity, Cells, Cultured, Glatiramer Acetate, Immunoglobulin G, Immunosuppressive Agents, Leukocytes, Mononuclear and Longitudinal Studies.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Glatiramer Acetate in 9 patients in people with multiple sclerosis over 3 years.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The publication is from 2006 (Journal of neuroimmunology), a journal based in Netherlands.

More context: the Glatiramer Acetate compound page, Multiple sclerosis research.