ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION Interferon (IFN) was first described by Isaacs and Lindenmann in 1957 (1), who noted the antiviral and immunomodulatory properties of this protein. Three decades of interferon research have revealed clinical benefit for multiple diseases, including cancer, herpes zoster, hepatitis B, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), and multiple sclerosis (MS). Research on the clinical and neurological effects of the IFN has been promising and has increased dramatically over the past 15 years, resulting in the recent approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July of 1993 for IFN-/3-lb in the treatment of relapsing-remitting MS (2,3).
