Apheresis for the treatment of relapses in MS and NMOSD: reduced antibody reactivities, gene expression changes and potential clinical response indicators.

Background: High-dose glucocorticoids are the standard treatment for acute relapses in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) or neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD). Therapeutic apheresis can be considered for the escalation of relapse therapy, but some patients still do not recover sufficiently. We aimed to explore the effects of apheresis on humoral and cellular immune parameters and to identify features that correlate with beneficial clinical outcomes.