[Recent advances in the treatment the nervous system disorders with interferon-alpha]

The interferons (IFN) have had considerable effect on the course of relapses and the natural course of the disability of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). However, the effects of IFN in other neurological disorders are little known.

To review the literature on the experimental and clinical applications of the IFN in disorders of the nervous system excluding MS.

We reviewed studies of the applications of the IFN in viral diseases (experimental and human rabies, herpes zoster, herpes virus, non-herpetic meningoencephalitic viruses, HTLV-I myelopathy, arbovirus in animals, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy); supposedly viral diseases (Reye's syndrome), continuous partial epilepsy (Kojewnikoff's syndrome); prion diseases (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease); degenerative-hereditary diseases (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, Sturge-Weber-Dimitri syndrome); immuno-allergic disorders (experimental myasthenia gravis, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy-CIDP-); Landry-Guillain-Barré-Strohl syndrome, polyneuropathy associated with IgM monoclonal gammapathy; tumour disorders (benign and malignant primary tumours of the brain, metastatic tumours, meningeal carcinomatosis, extra-intracranial haemangiomas, meningiomas), and other causes (cuban epidemic neuropathy, neuro-Becçet).

Disorders of the nervous system in which IFN may be used in a clinical trial include: herpes zoster and herpes simplex infections, HTLV-I myelopathy; subacute sclerosing leukoencephalopathy, continuous partial epilepsy (Kojewnicoff's syndrome), intra-extracranial haemangiomas, CIDP, polyneuropathy associated with IgM gamma monoclonal disorder, malignant primary tumours, recurrent meningiomas, some cerebral metastases, Behçet's disease and schizophrenia.