About the Authors

Joost Smolders

j.smolders@mumc.nl

Affiliations School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands, Division of Clinical and Experimental Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands, Academic MS Center Limburg, Orbis Medical Center, Sittard, The Netherlands

Evelyn Peelen

Affiliations School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands, Division of Clinical and Experimental Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands, Academic MS Center Limburg, Orbis Medical Center, Sittard, The Netherlands

Mariëlle Thewissen

Affiliation Division of Clinical and Experimental Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Jan Willem Cohen Tervaert

Affiliations School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands, Division of Clinical and Experimental Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands, Laboratory for Clinical Immunology, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Paul Menheere

Affiliation Department of Clinical Chemistry, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Raymond Hupperts

Affiliations School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands, Academic MS Center Limburg, Orbis Medical Center, Sittard, The Netherlands

Jan Damoiseaux

Affiliations Division of Clinical and Experimental Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands, Laboratory for Clinical Immunology, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Competing Interests

Joost Smolders received consultancy fee from Merck Serono, and received funding for travelling from Biogen Idec; Raymond Hupperts receives on a regular basis consultancy fees from Bayer Schering, Merck Serono, Biogen Idec and TEVA Aventis. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS One policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: JS MT JD. Performed the experiments: JS EP PM. Analyzed the data: JS EP MT JWCT PM RH JD. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JWCT PM RH JD. Wrote the paper: JS MT. Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: JS EP MT JWCT PM RH JD.