“Opioid growth factor (OGF) reversesthe progression of clinical disease in established relapse-remittingexperimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis - a model for multiple sclerosis”
Relapse-remitting multiple
sclerosis (RR-MS) is a chronic disorder involving inflammatory attacks on the Central
Nervous System. RR-MS affects about 350,000 people in the U.S. significantly
reducing their quality of life, and eventually may results in paralysis.
At the Experimental Biology
conference held in San Diego recently (April 2014), Leslie A. Hammer, a
graduate student in Anatomy, presented a poster and talk (titled above) about
her pre-clinical work conducted in the laboratories of Drs Zagon and McLaughlin
at the Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences, Penn State University
College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA.
OGF, chemically termed [Met5]-enkephalin,
was administered daily to female mice with established relapse-remitting
experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (RR-EAE). Mice were immunized with PLP139-151
in complete Freund’s adjuvant, and beginning 2 days after initial behavioral
signs received daily injections of OGF (10 mg/kg) or sterile saline.
Within 9 days of treatment with
OGF the mice had markedly reduced mean behavior scores relative to controls;
the sum of the behavior scores was 140.1±14.4 for the RR-EAE+Saline group in
comparison to 72.2±11.5 for the RR-EAE+OGF group.
Disease severity scores were
16.3± 5 for RR-EAE+Saline in comparison to 3.6±1.7 for OGF treated mice.
No saline-treated mouse had a
complete remission, whereas 83% of OGF mice had complete remissions (behavioral
score ≤ 0.5); the total length of time in complete remission was 9.1±3.4 days for
the RR-EAE+OGF animals over the course of the 40-day experimental period.
In summary, treatment with OGF
initiated at the time of discernible disease reduced the intensity of the
initial flair, reversed the progression of RR-EAE, and resulted in complete
clinical remission, supporting its use as a novel therapy for the treatment of
MS.
By participating at this event,
Leslie was able to raise the profile of LDN and OGF into the scientific/medical
community which attracted some media attention.
We are pleased that donations received from LDN users facilitated the
exposure of such important work allowing it to gain traction.
