Uc Science Today

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug that could halt multiple sclerosis, a devastating disease that affects hundreds of thousands of Americans. Neurologist Bruce Cree of the University of California, San Francisco, was part of the team testing ocrelizumab, which goes by the brand name Ocrevus. Cree explains that it targets B cells in the human body and blocks the inflammation that drives the disease. Most MS therapies in the past targeted T cells, which often had serious side effects. "You can have profound immunological effects and clinical benefits by just targeting B cells alone. And I think this is actually an important advance for multiple sclerosis because when you just target these cells without affecting T cells, you have less of a potential for adverse events due to broad spectrum immune suppression."