The Effect of IFN-β 1a on Biochemical Factors in Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Background Multiple sclerosis (MS) is known as a progressive and demyelinating disease, which involves biochemical changes. Objectives To evaluate the effect of IFNβ-1a therapy on the biochemical factors in the MS patients. Methods In this descriptive study, 30 MS patients and 30 healthy controls were included. The study was conducted in the Neurology Center at the Shefa hospital, Kerman, Iran from September 2013 to July 2015. The patients’ blood test was taken before and after six months of IFNβ-1a therapy and the biochemical factors (LDH, AST, ALT, Creatinine, Uric acid, Malondialdehyde (MDA) and nitric oxide (NO) were measured in all the samples. The participants were divided to three groups, namely main group (30 patients), females (22 patients) and males (8 patients). Before taking the medicine, the groups were compared to the control group. After six months of taking the medicine, each group was compared to its former state before taking the drug. Results In the patients group (30 patients), a significant difference was observed in their measured biochemical factors in comparison to the control group (P = 0.001), however, after six months of using IFNβ-1a, only MDA was shown in the main (P = 0.003) and female group (P = 0.003), and the ALT that was shown in the female group had a significant reduction in comparison to that before receiving IFNβ-1a. Conclusions This study showed that IFNβ-1a decreased oxidant impacts in MS patients, but had no influence in improving mitochondrial dysfunction.