Fig. 2.

JM-4 rapidly induces clinical recovery in acute proteolipid protein (PLP)–experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) –EAE. (a) PLP immunized SJL/J mice (n =10 per group) developed significant neurologic impairment at approximately 10 days postimmunization. When JM-4 was administered at the onset of symptoms for 7 days, clinical improvement appeared after 1 day, which was in contrast with EAE animals sham-treated with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) (p < 0.005). This reduction in symptom severity was sustained even after cessation of treatment. The experiments were repeated 4 times with similar clinical outcome. (2) MOG-induced EAE in the C57BL/6 mouse showed a disease onset around day 15–16 postimmunization. The symptomatic animals (n = 5–7/group) were divided randomly into 3 groups that received daily intravenous EPO (500 U/kg/day for 7 days) or JM-4 (250 μg/kg/day for 7 days), or saline for the same period. Significant clinical improvement was observed in both EPO- and JM-4-treated groups when compared with saline-treated EAE controls (p < 0.03). The JM-4 treated group showed similar clinical outcome when compared with the EPO-treated group (p = 0.072)