Teriflunomide attenuates immunopathological changes in the dark agouti rat model of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

Teriflunomide is an oral disease-modifying therapy recently approved in several locations for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. To gain insight into the effects of teriflunomide, immunocyte population changes were measured during progression of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis in Dark Agouti rats. Treatment with teriflunomide attenuated levels of spinal cord-infiltrating T cells, natural killer cells, macrophages, and neutrophils. Teriflunomide also mitigated the disease-induced changes in immune cell populations in the blood and spleen suggesting an inhibitory effect on pathogenic immune responses.

Effects of prophylactic and therapeutic teriflunomide in transcranial magnetic stimulation-induced motor-evoked potentials in the dark agouti rat model of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

Teriflunomide is a once-daily oral immunomodulatory agent recently approved in the United States for the treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS). This study investigated neurophysiological deficits in descending spinal cord motor tracts during experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE; a model of multiple sclerosis) and the functional effectiveness of prophylactic or therapeutic teriflunomide treatment in preventing the debilitating paralysis observed in this model. Relapsing-remitting EAE was induced in Dark Agouti rats using rat spinal cord homogenate. Animals were treated with oral teriflunomide (10 mg/kg daily) prophylactically, therapeutically, or with vehicle (control). Transcranial magnetic motor-evoked potentials were measured throughout the disease to provide quantitative assessment of the neurophysiological status of descending motor tracts. Axonal damage was quantified histologically by silver staining. Both prophylactic and therapeutic teriflunomide treatment significantly reduced maximum EAE disease scores (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.0001, respectively) compared with vehicle-treated rats. Electrophysiological recordings demonstrated that both teriflunomide treatment regimens prevented a delay in wave-form latency and a decrease in wave-form amplitude compared with that observed in vehicle-treated animals. A significant reduction in axonal loss was observed with both teriflunomide treatment regimens compared with vehicle (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.0014, respectively). The results of this study suggest that therapeutic teriflunomide can prevent the deficits observed in this animal model in descending spinal cord motor tracts. The mechanism behind reduced axonal loss and improved motor function may be primarily the reduced inflammation and consequent demyelination observed in these animals through the known effects of teriflunomide on impairing proliferation of stimulated T cells. These findings may have significant implications for patients with RMS.

Teriflunomide reduces behavioral, electrophysiological, and histopathological deficits in the Dark Agouti rat model of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

Teriflunomide is an orally available anti-inflammatory drug that prevents T and B cell proliferation and function by inhibition of dihydroorotate dehydrogenase. It is currently being developed for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS). We report here for the first time the anti-inflammatory effects of teriflunomide in the Dark Agouti rat model of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Neurological evaluation demonstrated that prophylactic dosing of teriflunomide at 3 and 10 mg/kg delayed disease onset and reduced maximal and cumulative scores. Therapeutic administration of teriflunomide at doses of 3 or 10 mg/kg at disease onset significantly reduced maximal and cumulative disease scores as compared to vehicle treated rats. Dosing teriflunomide at disease remission, at 3 and 10 mg/kg, reduced the cumulative scores for the remaining course of the disease. Teriflunomide at 10 mg/kg significantly reduced inflammation, demyelination, and axonal loss when dosed prophylactically or therapeutically. In electrophysiological somatosensory evoked potential studies, therapeutic administration of teriflunomide, at the onset of disease, prevented both a decrease in waveform amplitude and an increase in the latency to waveform initiation in EAE animals compared to vehicle. Therapeutic dosing with teriflunomide at disease remission prevented a decrease in evoked potential amplitude, prevented an increase in latency, and enhanced recovery time within the CNS.

An electrophysiological model of spinal transmission deficits in mouse experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

Chronic relapsing/remitting experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) can be induced in 8-week-old female SJL/J(H-2) mice via inoculation with the p139-151 peptide of myelin proteolipid protein (PLP), Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MT), complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA), and Bordatella pertussis. EAE is a relevant preclinical model of MS that incorporates several aspects of the clinical disease. Chief among these are the inflammatory mediated neurological deficits. While the impact of localized spinal cord demyelination on neurotransmission has been modeled successfully, relatively little work has been done with spinal cord from animals with EAE. The goal of this study was to assess the utility of a grease-gap tissue bath methodology in the detection of transmission deficits in EAE spinal cord tissue. Spinal cords removed from EAE mice at different phases of the neurological deficit were assessed for their response to both lumbar and sacral application of one of several depolarizing agents (veratridine, potassium chloride [KCl], (+/-)-alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid [AMPA]). The main finding of this study is that transmission deficits were detected in EAE mice at the onset of the neurological deficits. They were sustained for a period of approximately 2 to 3 weeks post disease onset followed by a gradual recovery of group function. The other finding is that there is a decrease in the latency to achieve AMPA-mediated depolarization in sacral spinal cord that is independent of the magnitude of the depolarization response. These results suggest that this methodology can be utilized to assess sensory and motor deficits in spinal cord from EAE animals.

Statistical method for analysis of the disease curve in animals with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a procedure used in the laboratory to examine drugs that may have utility in treating multiple sclerosis (MS). The problem of modeling the disease curve in animals with EAE is studied. The classification of animals after each experiment is considered and the chi-square test is proposed to test a homogeneity between treatment groups. A mixture type of nonlinear mixed-effects model with repeated measurements is considered, assuming that the onset and/or remission of disease is the fixed effect as well as the random effect. Statistical inference on the parameters of the disease curves is discussed. The proposed model is shown to be efficient for comparing the disease curves with different treatments. Examples concerning the study of the effects of test compounds in EAE are presented to illustrate the proposed model and statistical methodologies.