The effect of galanin alone and combined with estrogen in a cuprizone-induced demyelination mouse model of multiple sclerosis
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Date
2011-08-09
Authors
Zhang, Lin
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Abstract
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune demyelination disease of the central nervous system (CNS). The traditional immunotherapies so far have not been able to stop the progression of the disease.
Galanin (GAL) is an inducible neuropeptide. It has diverse regulatory effects in the nervous. The expression of galanin is induced by the administration of estrogen and is increased during pregnancy in rodents. In women with MS, pregnancy has a protective effect associated with significant remission of MS symptoms during the second and third trimester.
In this study, using the cuprizone (CPZ) demyelination model of MS I demonstrated that GAL has a pronounced neuroprotective effect on demyelination and remyelination, with estrogen the protection was further enhanced. Moreover, I also found differential activation of GAL receptors in the demyelination and remyelination processes.
These results suggest GAL alone or combined with estrogen might introduce next generation strategies for the treatment of MS.
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Keywords
Multiple sclerosis, galanin, estrogen, cuprizone, demyelination, remyelination