Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system (CNS).
With MS, your immune system mistakenly attacks your nerves and destroys myelin, their protective coating. If left untreated, MS can eventually destroy all of the myelin surrounding your nerves. Then it may start to harm the nerves themselves.
There’s no cure for MS, but there are several types of treatments. In some cases, treatment can slow the pace of MS. Treatment can also help ease symptoms and reduce potential damage done by MS flare-ups. Flare-ups are the periods when you have symptoms.
However, once an attack has started, you may need another type of medication called a disease modifier. Disease modifiers can change how the disease behaves. They can also help slow the progression of MS and reduce flare-ups.
Some disease-modifying therapies come as infused medications. These infusion treatments may be especially helpful to people with aggressive or advanced MS. Read on to learn more about these medications and how they help treat MS.
Q&A: Administering infusion treatments
Q: How are infusion treatments given?
A: These drugs are injected intravenously. This means you receive them through your vein. However, you don’t inject these medications yourself. You can only receive these drugs from a healthcare provider in a healthcare facility.
The Healthline Medical Team
Infusion treatment drugs
Today there are four infusible drugs available to treat MS. However, we are only showing three as the fourth is not used any longer (being a dangerous chemo-therapy drug)
Alemtuzumab (Lemtrada)
Doctors give alemtuzumab (Lemtrada) to people who haven’t responded well to at least two other MS medications.
This drug works by slowly reducing your body’s number of T and B lymphocytes, which are types of white blood cells (WBCs). This action may reduce inflammation and damage to nerve cells.
You receive this drug once per day for five days. Then one year after your first treatment, you receive the drug once per day for three days.
Natalizumab (Tysabri)
Natalizumab (Tysabri) works by stopping the damaging immune cells from entering your brain and spinal cord. You receive this drug once every four weeks.
Ocrelizumab (Ocrevus)
Ocrelizumab is the newest infusion treatment for MS. It was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2017.
Ocrelizumab is used to treat relapsing or primary progressive forms of MS. In fact, it’s the first drug approved to treat primary progressive MS (PPMS).
This medication is thought to work by targeting the B lymphocytes that are responsible for myelin sheath damage and repair.
It’s initially given in two 300-milligram infusions, separated by two weeks. After that, it’s given in 600-milligram infusions every six months.
Side effects of the infusion process
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