These findings demonstrate that miR-155 confers susceptibility to EAE by affecting inflammatory T cell responses and can be a new target for therapy of multiple sclerosis.
Studies on experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), the animal model of MS, further support the significance of miRNA as e.g. mice with miR-155 deletion are highly resistant to EAE.
Several miRNAs such as miR-155 or miR-326 are considerably overexpressed in active MS lesions versus controls, and mice lacking these miRNAs either through knock-out (miR-155) or by in vivo silencing (miR-326) show a reduction of symptoms in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a model system for multiple sclerosis.
Induction of the murine micro-RNAs, miR-338 and miR-155, accompanied by diminished expression of neurosteroidogenic enzymes and allopregnanolone, was also observed in the brains of mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (P < 0.05).