TY  - EJOU
AU  - Lampasona, Vito 
AU  - Rio, Jordi 
AU  - Franciotta, Diego 
AU  - Furlan, Roberto 
AU  - Avolio, Carlo 
AU  - Fazio, Raffaella 
AU  - Lavolpe, Vito 
AU  - Vincent, Angela 
AU  - Comi, Giancarlo 
AU  - Trojano, Maria 
AU  - Montalban, Xavier 
AU  - Martino, Gianvito 

TI  - Serial immunoprecipitation assays for interferon – (IFN)-β antibodies in multiple sclerosis patients
T2  - European Cytokine Network

PY  - 2003
VL  - 14
IS  - 3
SN  - 1952-4005

AB  - We devised a sensitive, radioimmunoprecipitation assay (RIPA) for anti-interferon (IFN)-
b – binding antibody (BAB) detection. Our RIPA showed good agreement with a reference RIPA (mean
difference, – 3.2 ± 10.6 AU), and detected BAB to both IFN-β-1α and IFN-β-1β. Neutralizing antibodies to IFN-β
(NAB) were also determined with a standard method. BAB and NAB were measured in 393 serum samples from
77 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients treated with IFN-β-1α or -1β, who were studied over two years, and
subsequently classified as responders and non-responders. BAB were found at higher concentrations, and more
frequently detected, in IFN-β-1β- than in IFN-β-1α-treated patients, and, at highest titres, preferentially in
patients who were positive for NAB. However, in our series of MS patients, both titres and frequency of detection
of BAB or NAB did not differ between IFN-β responders and non-responders.
KW  - multiple sclerosis
KW  -  IFN-β
KW  -  binding antibodies
KW  -  anti-IFN-β antibodies

DO  -