Multiple sclerosis (MS) represents the prototypic inflammatory autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system and is the most common cause of neurological disability in young adults. These days, the management of relapsing-remitting and relapsing secondary progressive MS by immunomodulatory or immunosuppressant treatment includes 6 drugs, which have proven to be clinically and paraclinically effective. Conventional first-line disease modifying therapy currently is interferon beta and glatiramer acetate, both have a modest effect by 30% reduction on relapses. They are safe and have well tolerated side effects on long term therapy but about one third of the patients have suboptimal response to treatment. Those patient, who have failed to respond to first-line therapies are suitable for second-line treatment options including natalizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody or immunosuppressant mitoxantron. In this review we summarize current clinical evidence on using immunomodulatory drugs for treating patients with MS.
Keywords: multiple sclerosis (MS) - IFNB: interferon beta – GA: glatiramer acetate - natalizumab - mitoxantrone