PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Gandoglia, Ilaria
AU  - Ivaldi, Federico
AU  - Laroni, Alice
AU  - Benvenuto, Federica
AU  - Solaro, Claudio
AU  - Mancardi, Gianluigi
AU  - Kerlero de Rosbo, Nicole
AU  - Uccelli, Antonio
TI  - Teriflunomide treatment reduces B cells in patients with MS
AID  - 10.1212/NXI.0000000000000403
DP  - 2017 Nov 01
TA  - Neurology - Neuroimmunology Neuroinflammation
PG  - e403
VI  - 4
IP  - 6
4099  - http://nn.neurology.org/content/4/6/e403.short
4100  - http://nn.neurology.org/content/4/6/e403.full
SO  - Neurol Neuroimmunol Neuroinflamm2017 Nov 01; 4
AB  - Objective: To study the immunomodulatory effect of teriflunomide on innate and adaptive immune cell populations through a pilot, open-label, observational study in a cohort of patients with relapsing-remitting MS.Methods: Blood lymphocytes were isolated from 10 patients with MS before and after 3 or 12 months of treatment. Adaptive and innate immune cell subsets were analyzed by flow cytometry as follows: B cells (memory, regulatory, and mature subsets), T cells (effector and regulatory subsets), and natural killer (NK) cells (CD56dim and CD56bright subsets).Results: Our results show that teriflunomide significantly reduces absolute counts of total CD19+ B cells and mature and regulatory B-cell subsets. T cells were affected to a lesser extent, with a trend in reduction of absolute counts for both T effector CD4+ cells (Th1, Th17 and Th1/17) and T regulatory CD8+ and CD4+ cells. Teriflunomide had no detectable effect on NK-cell numbers.Conclusions: In our small cohort, teriflunomide treatment affects mainly and significantly on B-cell numbers, while having a milder effect on T-cell numbers. Larger cohorts are necessary to confirm these findings and understand the effect of teriflunomide on the functionality of these cells.EDSS=Expanded Disability Status Scale; IFNγ=interferon gamma; NK=natural killer; RR-MS=relapsing-remitting MS; Teff=effector T cell; Treg=regulatory T cell