{"doi":"10.1093/braincomms/fcaf363","title":"Risk of cardiovascular and autoimmune disease in people with multiple sclerosis on long-term interferon-β therapy","abstract":"Abstract Chronically elevated type I interferons (−β and -α) can induce atherosclerosis and autoimmunity but whether this link translates into adverse events in interferon-β users with multiple sclerosis is unknown. We therefore aimed to determine whether long-term interferon-β exposure increases the risk of cardiovascular and autoimmune disease in a Canadian population-based cohort with linked hospital/physician visits and filled prescriptions. People with multiple sclerosis were included from the most recent of (i) first diagnostic code or disease-modifying therapy or (ii) prescription data availability (1/JAN/1996), and followed until the earliest of outcome, emigration, death or study end (31/DEC/2017). Associations were tested using stratified Cox regressions with time-dependent covariates. The cohort included 19 360 people with multiple sclerosis followed for a median duration of 11.2 years (Q1-Q3: 5.1–18.7), of whom 3138 (16.2%) ever used an interferon-β. Longer interferon-β therapy was associated with a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease (per 5-year longer treatment: hazard ratio = 1.18; 95% confidence interval: 1.02, 1.37; P = 0.026) but not with autoimmunity (hazard ratio = 0.74; 95% confidence interval: 0.49, 1.11; P = 0.139). This new safety signal should encourage clinicians to optimize cardiovascular prevention in people with multiple sclerosis and may be considered when discussing treatment options in interferon-β users who are at high risk or with established cardiovascular disease.","journal":"Brain Communications","year":2025,"id":575671,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9484,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":588862,"name":"Feng Zhu","orcid":"0000-0002-8468-183X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":879547,"name":"Huah Shin Ng","orcid":"0000-0001-8381-5253","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":917182,"name":"Yinshan Zhao","orcid":"0000-0001-5433-4637","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1483911,"name":"Thomas M. Caparrotta","orcid":"0000-0001-9009-9179","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":96434,"name":"William Whiteley","orcid":"0000-0002-4816-8991","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1155916,"name":"David Hunt","orcid":"0000-0003-4230-0207","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":418591,"name":"Helen Tremlett","orcid":"0000-0001-5804-2535","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1155912,"name":"Bastien Rioux","orcid":"0000-0002-0292-259X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":27,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:57:52.712371Z","pmid":"41255545","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}