Releasing an immune system brake could help patients with rare but fatal brain infection | National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Releasing an immune system brake could help patients with rare but fatal brain infection | National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

PML lesions in the brain
MRI of a PML patient showing significant lesions in the brain (white signal)
Image courtesy of Daniel S. Reich, M.D., Ph.D., NINDS

Releasing an immune system brake could help patients with rare but fatal brain infection

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Small-scale, NIH-led clinical study offers early hope for developing a treatment

The anti-cancer drug pembrolizumab has shown promise in slowing or stopping the progression of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a typically fatal infection of the brain caused by the JC virus (JCV). This finding comes from a small-scale study by scientists at National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study appears in the New England Journal of Medicine.