{"paper_id":"16bad395-0876-45de-9d26-87ff1d1384c6","body_text":"Abstract\nGonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH), a well known hypothalamic neuropeptide, has been reported to possess neurotrophic properties. Leuprolide acetate, a synthetic analogue of GnRH is considered to be a very safe and tolerable drug and it has been used for diverse clinical applications, including the treatment of prostate cancer, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, central precocious puberty and in vitro fertilization techniques. The present study was designed to determine whether Leuprolide acetate administration, exerts neurotrophic effects on clinical signs, body weight gain, neurofilaments (NFs) and myelin basic protein (MBP) expression, axonal morphometry and cell infiltration in spinal cord of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) rats. In this work, we have found that Leuprolide acetate treatment decreases the severity of clinical signs of locomotion, induces a significantly greater body weight gain, increases the MBP and NFs expression, axonal area and cell infiltration in EAE animals. These results suggest the use of this agonist as a potential therapeutic approach for multiple sclerosis.\nSimilar content being viewed by others\nReferences\nSospedra M, Martin R (2005) Immunology of multiple sclerosis. Annu Rev Immunol 23:683–747\nO’Connor KC, Chitnis T, Griffin DE, Piyasirisilp S, Bar-Or A, Khoury S, Wucherpfennig KW, Hafler DA (2003) Myelin basic protein-reactive autoantibodies in the serum and cerebrospinal fluid of multiple sclerosis patients are characterized by low-affinity interactions. J Neuroimmunol 136:140–148\nSun D, Newman TA, Perry VH, Weller RO (2004) Cytokine-induced enhancement of autoimmune inflammation in the brain and spinal cord: implications for multiple sclerosis. 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Leuprolide Acetate, a GnRH Agonist, Improves Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis: A Possible Therapy for Multiple Sclerosis. Neurochem Res 37, 2190–2197 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-012-0842-x\nReceived:\nRevised:\nAccepted:\nPublished:\nIssue date:\nDOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-012-0842-x","source_license":"public-domain-us","license_restricted":false}