My Tysabri Diary...,

Whoa, the latest press release regarding Tysabri & the possible link to PML is now out..., the entire press release can be found at:

http://newsroom.elan.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=88326&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1412100&highlight=

When I carefully read the press release, I noted the following information in same which I found extremely interesting: (the bold and italicized type is mine)

'AAN platform presentation shows MS patients treated with TYSABRI experienced no substantial changes in the presence of JCV DNA, and second platform shows that patients who developed progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) had evidence of antibodies to JCV that suggests prior infection.

One platform presents data suggesting that treatment with TYSABRI does not have a substantial effect on the presence of JCV DNA in MS patients. In the Dose Suspension Safety Assessment (n=1397) and STRATA (n=1094), JCV DNA was detected in less than 1 percent of all patients, approximately 50 percent of whom were TYSABRI naive.

The second platform presents data indicating that patients who developed PML had evidence of prior infection with JCV, as measured by the presence of anti-JCV antibodies. Investigators evaluated serum samples from TYSABRI patients who developed PML where blood samples had been collected at least one year prior to the diagnosis of PML. Most of these samples were collected prior to beginning treatment with TYSABRI. In all of these patients, serum samples were positive for JCV antibodies prior to onset of PML, suggesting pre-existing JCV infection in these patients.

Even though I'm not a doctor, this suggests to me what I believed & have been posting here and on the different MS boards all along -- that being the patients who developed PML and were previously immune compromised due to being on previous medications such as Azathioprine/Imuran, Methotrexate, Novantrone, Remicade, etc., and then became Tysabri patients, when they already had the JC virus which was no longer dormant--this is when Tysabri started getting the bad rap for causing PML, which has been proven NOT to be the case--it was the prior medications which left them immune compromised and with them already having the dormant JC virus (and we now know this because they showed antibodies to the virus in the testing/trials) which became activated because of this prior condition, thus causing PML.'

Somehow, I feel vindicated as a patient on Tysabri therapy.

Have a good day everyone.

((((hugs))))

Love, Lauren :)