Laquinimod targets the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) pathway in periphery and brains of naïve and EAE mice

By April 21, 2017July 17th, 2020News

Objective:

To elucidate laquinimod’s broad molecular effects in a tissue-specific manner using a genome-wide approach.

Background:

Laquinimod is a once-daily oral treatment currently in clinical trials for relapsing-remitting and primary-progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), and Huntington disease (HD). While laquinimod’s mechanism-of-action (MoA) is not fully elucidated, effects on the peripheral innate immune system as well as on resident cells within the CNS have been observed. It was recently shown that deletion of AhR in the peripheral immune system abrogates the effect of laquinimod in EAE.

Design/Methods:

Naive or MOG-EAE female C57BL/6 mice were treated with vehicle or 25 mg/kg laquinimod for 13 days, after-which RNAseq was performed on blood, splenocytes, and brain from six mice per arm.