Brief Definitive Report INHIBITION OF ACUTE EXPERIMENTAL ALLERGIC ENCEPHALOMYELITIS IN MICE BY COLCHICINE

Experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) is widely regarded as a laboratory analog of multiple sclerosis (MS) . Recent evidence both in MS and EAE point to the fact that activated macrophages appear to be proximal agents of myelin destruction (1) . In view of these findings and encouraged by the preliminary results of a trial of colchicine in MS patients, we asked the question whether or not colchicine might be effective in the prevention of EAE. Colchicine is a unique antiinflammatory agent whose traditional use has been in the treatment and prophylaxis of acute gout (2) . In addition, colchicine is also effective against a variety of inflammatory disorders such as familial Mediterranean fever and Behcet's disease which resemble MS in their cardinal features of recurrent inflammation and enhanced chemotaxis and phagocytosis . Murine EAE was induced both by active sensitization of animals with neural antigens and by adoptive transfer of encephalitogenic T cells . The results obtained clearly show that colchicine blocks the appearance of EAE and appears to exert its inhibitory effects mainly on the efferent limb of the immune response .