A new blood test seems able to parse whether beta-interferon — the major treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) — will work for MS patients even before therapy begins. Reporting online yesterday in Nature Medicine, a team led by Larry Steinman, a neurologist at Stanford University, found that the efficacy of the $25,000 per year drug depends on what immune cell type is involved in the disease.

“Now we have the realistic prospect that we could have a test that will tell us whether beta-interferon will work in a person with MS,” says Steinman, who explains the findings in the following video:

Other coverage:

MS study may have treatment implications (Globe and Mail)

Discovery may lead to better multiple sclerosis treatments (Business Week)

<A HREF=“https://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/29/scientists-find-there-may-be-two-forms-of-multiple-sclerosis/”>Scientists find there may be two forms of multiple sclerosis (CNN)

”https://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/2010/03/are_there_multiple_forms_of_ms.html?wprss=checkup">Multiple forms of MS? (Washington Post)

Test predicts which patients benefit from $6 dillion MS drugs (Bloomberg)