الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract The Current and future treatment strategies of MS disease Recent advances in our understanding of autoimmune mechanism involved in MS have prompted clinical trials in various forms to treat MS patients with some success. These clinical trials arc at various stages of development. Most of these experimental regimens arc still being evaluated for their treatment efficacy. These treatments vary in many aspects, and these therapies attack different elements in the disease processes. In general, they can be divided into two categories, (I) specific immunotherapy targeting putative myelin auto reactive T cells and a process related to their activation in vivo and (2) irnmunomodulatory drugs aimed to reduce or stabilize inflammatory reactions in the brain without targeting specific myelin autoreactive T cells ( Aharoni et al 1997 1998 2000 ) These drugs arc exemplified by beta-IFN and Copaxone. We are entering an interesting moment in medical history when many different experimental treatments are now available to patients with MS however, this also creates a dilemma for physicians to select an uppropriate treatment for their patients, and these opportunities enuse considered confusion among MS patients who attempt to choose between various clinical trial(s) and regirnen(s) that are available to them ( Tcitelbaum et al ., 1996: Rudiek et al 1997b). |