RBMBG · Identifying the factors leading to pregnancy-induced remission in a model of Multiple Sclerosis
FP6 — Marie Curie Actions (Human Resources and Mobility)
- Duration
- 2005-06-01 → 2007-05-31
- EU contribution
- €80,000
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- IRG
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Results in brief
Final Activity Report Summary - RBMBG (Identifying the factors leading to pregnancy-induced remission in a model of Multiple Sclerosis)
The objective of this work was to characterise the mechanisms involved in pregnancy-induced remission in a model mimicking aspects of Multiple sclerosis, the relapsing-remitting Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mice model. This work allowed the validation of the SLJ mice relpasing-remitting EAE model through use of a clinical pharmacological agent, Mitoxantrone, demonstrating its efficacy at reducing severity and spinal cord damages measured by specially developed ELISA methods. Moreover this work also demonstrated that pregnancy-induced remission occurred during the last part of the pregnancy and, as in women, showed major rebound in clinical signs after parturition. Again, it was demonstrated that pregnancy induced a CNS protection detectable at the level of the axons and myelin content. These data strongly support the concept that during pregnancy key factors are modulating the pathology severity and inducing a privileged period of remission.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a major pathology that is typically associated with central nervous system inflammations, demyelination and axonal loss. MS has a major economical impact on health care systems since it has currently no available cure. This pathology presents a clear sexual difference since women are representing over the two thirds of MS patients.However the clinical outcome of women with MS is better than the one for men. It has been suggested that sexual steroid hormones play a role in this potential protection since women with remitting-relapsing form of MS undergo remission during the last trimester of pregnancy. This effect is more beneficial clinically than any effect induced by current pharmaceutical treatments. Studying remission induced by pregnancy is extremely relevant to understand the mechanisms involved in MS remission and for its potential to identify factors that may be developed as new therapeutic compounds.The major goal of this project is to investigate through in vivo and gene array strategies, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the protective effect of pregnancy in an experimentally induced murine model of MS. The first objective is to determine the specific parameters (i.e. inflammation, demyelination, or axonal loss) that are specifically modulated in vivo during pregnancy-induced remission. The second objective is to identify, through gene array analysis, factors that are specifically regulated during remission and that are involved in this mechanism.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- ISTITUTO DI RICERCHE BIOMEDICHE ANTOINE MARXER RBM S.P.A. · COLLERETTO GIACOSACoordinatorCity levelItaly
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union