Alemtuzumab in mice

Turner MJ, Lamorte MJ, Chretien N, Havari E, Roberts BL, Kaplan JM, Siders WM.Immune status following alemtuzumab treatment in human CD52 transgenic mice. J Neuroimmunol. 2013 Jun 4. doi:pii: S0165-5728(13)00115-X. 10.1016/j.jneuroim.2013.04.018. [Epub ahead of print]
Alemtuzumab is a monoclonal antibody against the CD52 antigen present at high levels on the surface of lymphocytes. While treatment of multiple sclerosis patients with alemtuzumab results in marked depletion of lymphocytes from the circulation, it has not been associated with a high incidence of serious infections. In a human CD52 transgenic mouse, alemtuzumab treatment showed minimal impact on the number and function of innate immune cells. A transient decrease in primary adaptive immune responses was observed post-alemtuzumab but there was little effect on memory responses. These results potentially help explain the level of immunocompetence observed in alemtuzumab-treated MS patients.

This study looks at the effect of lemtrada in mice, which have the target. In mice it has not much effect on the innate system and it had a transient effect on the immune arm and no much effect on memory cells. This just shows us the difference between mice and man. You give alemtuzumab to people and their T cells are gone for a few years but in mice they cells are replaced within a few weeks.

However not keeping your subject under constant immunosuppressing conditions will of course allow immune cells to expand and get rid of infections. Rather than tell us what happens in mice it is easier to see how the body responds to infection after vaccination

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