%0 Journal Article
%T Prevalence of Anti-JC Virus Antibody in Multiple Sclerosis Patients in Kuwait
%A S. Lamdhade
%A A. Ashkanani
%A R. Alroughani
%J ISRN Neurology
%D 2014
%R 10.1155/2014/861091
%X Background. Multiple sclerosis (MS) therapeutics entered a new era after the development of anti-JC virus (anti-JCV) antibody assay that assesses the risk of development of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) in patients treated with natalizumab. Objective. To determine the prevalence of anti-JCV antibody among MS patients in Kuwait. Methods. Using the national MS registry, demographics and disease characteristics of MS patients who were screened for anti-JC virus antibody were collected. The prevalence of anti-JCV antibody seropositivity and its association with demographic and disease characteristics were evaluated. Results. Out of 110 screened MS patients for anti-JCV antibodies, 65.5% were females. Mean age and disease duration were 29.23£¿¡À£¿8.55 and 5.39£¿¡À£¿5.04 years, respectively. 47.3% of patients were already on natalizumab and 52.7% of patients were screened for stratification to either natalizumab or a different Disease Modifying Therapy (DMT). The overall prevalence of anti-JC virus antibody was 40%. Gender ( ), disease duration ( ), and number of natalizumab infusions ( ) were not associated with seropositivity. Patients aged ¡Ý30 years were more likely to be seropositive ( ). Conclusion. The prevalence of anti-JCV antibody is slightly lower than what is reported in published studies. Seropositivity was associated with an increasing age of MS patients. 1. Introduction Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is a rare neurological disease, which is caused by JC virus (JCV) infection. Reactivation of JCV occurs usually in immune-compromised or AIDS patients. JCV infection has gained importance to neurologists after the report of two PML cases in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who received natalizumab [1]. The tremendous advances in the understanding of MS pathology and pharmacotherapy have improved the patients¡¯ outcomes significantly. Given the concern of PML, the benefit of natalizumab treatment is to be weighed against its risk. After the recent development of blood anti-JC virus antibody test, stratification of MS patients to various disease modifying therapies (DMTs) entered a new era [2]. Hence, studying the prevalence of JCV in MS patients became important, as it would impact the clinical decision-making, especially in patients who had received prior immunosuppressants or are receiving natalizumab for more than 24 months. Although many cases of PML have been reported from various parts of the globe, the relationship between the number of natalizumab infusions and risk of PML development has not been clearly
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.neurology/2014/861091/