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whatever Rituxan does, it does it outside the CNS

Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2017 3:36 am
by frodo
Whatever Rituxan does, it does it outside the CNS. PET imaging shows that Rituxan never enters the CNS at all. This leaves open the question about how B-cells produce MS attacks.

Cerebral rituximab uptake in multiple sclerosis. A Zr-immunoPET pilot study
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10. ... 8517704507

Abstract

Previous studies have demonstrated that the chimeric monoclonal antibody rituximab significantly reduces clinical and radiological disease activity in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis as early as 4 weeks after the first administration.

The exact mechanisms leading to this rapid effect have not yet been clarified. The aim of this positron emission tomography study was to assess central nervous system penetration as a possible explanation, using zirconium-89-labelled rituximab. No evidence was found for cerebral penetration of [89Zr]rituximab.

Re: whatever Rituxan does, it does it outside the CNS

Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2017 10:03 pm
by Scott1
Hi,

That raises the intriguing idea of EBV infection. Latent EBV resides in the B cell so if you ablate to B cell you remove the EBV.

He mentions ablation of B cells in 5.1.2 of the attached article.

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ad/2012/189096/

Regards,