Furthermore, the ability of B cells to secrete IL10 has been shown to be impaired in autoimmune diseases, including SLE (Blair et al., 2010) and multiple sclerosis (Duddy et al., 2007), and treatment of multiple sclerosis patients with mitoxantrone, an approved chemotherapy for aggressive MS, results in increased B-cell IL10 production and lower production of the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF and lymphotoxin (Neuhaus et al., 2005). This evidence concerns the gene IL10 and autoimmune disease.