Anti-IL-12 antibody prevents the development and progression of multiple sclerosis-like relapsing--remitting demyelinating disease in NOD mice induced with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein peptide.

Treatment with monoclonal anti-IL-12 antibody injected on day 0, 7 and 10 after immunization with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) peptide 35-55 in NOD mice resulted in significant suppression of the development and the severity of the chronic relapsing-remitting experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) both clinically and histologically. The spleen cells from anti-IL-12 antibody treated mice displayed markedly inhibited MOG35-55 specific proliferation and IFN-gamma production. MOG35-55 specific antibody production was enhanced by anti-IL-12 antibody treatment. These results suggest that IL-12 is critically involved in the pathogenesis of MOG-induced EAE and that antibody to IL-12 could be an effective therapeutic agent in the clinical treatment of autoimmune demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS).