Impact of glatiramer acetate on paraclinical markers of neuroprotection in multiple sclerosis: A prospective observational clinical trial

Abstract Data from in vitro and animal studies support a neuroprotective role of glatiramer acetate (GA) in multiple sclerosis (MS). We investigated prospectively whether treatment with GA leads to clinical and paraclinical changes associated with neuroprotection in patients with relapsing-remitting (RR) MS. Primary aim of this clinical study was to determine serum BDNF levels in RR-MS patients who were started on GA as compared to patients who remained therapy-naive throughout 24 months. Secondary outcomes included relapses and EDSS, cognition, quality of life, fatigue and depression, BDNF expression levels on peripheral immune cells (FACS, RT-PCR), serum anti-myelin basic peptide (MBP) antibody status, evoked potential and cerebral MRI studies. While GA treatment did not alter serum levels or expression levels on peripheral immune cells of BDNF over time it resulted in a transient increase of serum IgG antibody response to MBP, mainly due to subtype IgG1 (p