Multiple sclerosis is a chronic desease that often leads to severe neurologic defects by an autoimmune process which results in demyelination. It is among the most common causes of disability in young people in Europe. A lot of aspects of the pathophysiology of multiple sclerosis have not been unterstood yet. There are many different concepts for the therapy of multiple sclerosis, most of them are based on immunosupression or direct immunomodulation by the so called „biologicals“. In contrast to those concepts, glatiramer acetat is just a simple mixture of amino acids. Different mechanisms have been discussed, e.g. that glatiramer acetat binds to effector cells of the immunosystem or that it changes the ratio of different types of t-cells. Which mechanism dominates the therapeutic benefits resulting from a therapy with glatiramer acetat has not been explained.
– Johannes Heymer