What disease-modifying therapies offer
Introduction
There are currently 3 types of treatments available that have been clearly shown to change the clinical course of certain forms of MS. They are beta interferon-1b, beta interferon-1a and glatiramer acetate. The interferons are naturally derived hormones involved in controlling the body's immune system whilst glatiramer acetate is a mixture of short chains of amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) which modulates the immune response in a way yet to be defined.
These have each been shown to be effective in preventing relapse and some have shown the ability to slow the progression of the disease, including lengthening the time to disability.
