Neuroantigen-specific, tolerogenic vaccines: GM-CSF is a fusion partner that facilitates tolerance rather than immunity to dominant self-epitopes of myelin in murine models of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE)

Table 2 GMCSF-MOG required physically-linked cytokine and NAg domains for tolerance induction

Exp. #	Treatment^a	Mean cum. score	Median cum. score	Mean max. score	Median max. score	% mean initial weight	Incidence of EAE^b	Mean # days with severe EAE^b
1	Saline	71.9 ± 24.2	63.3	4.0 ± 0.7	4.0	82.1%	8 of 8	13.8 ± 10.0
1	GM-CSF	68.3 ± 23.6	64.0	3.9 ± 0.2	4.0	82.0%	8 of 8	13.6 ± 10.9
1	MOG35-55	102.1 ± 13.3	103.0	4.0 ± 0.0	4.0	81.8%	8 of 8	26.3 ± 3.8
1	GM-CSF + MOG	93.3 ± 19.5	90.5	4.3 ± 0.5	4.0	78.7%	8 of 8	23.1 ± 5.9
1	GMCSF-MOG	4.8 ± 13.0	0.0	0.3 ± 0.7	0.0	100.7%	2 of 8	0.0 ± 0.0
1	TTV vs Saline	p = 0.001		p < 0.001		p < 0.001	p = 0.007	p = 0.005
1	TTV vs GM-CSF	p = 0.004		p < 0.001		p < 0.001	p = 0.007	p = 0.030
1	TTV vs MOG35-55	p < 0.001		p < 0.001		p < 0.001	p = 0.007	p < 0.001
1	TTV vs "mixture"	p < 0.001		p < 0.001		p < 0.001	p = 0.007	p = 0.0002
2	Saline	74.1 ± 38.1	66.8	3.3 ± 0.9	3.5	89.5%	8 of 8	6.5 ± 8.8
2	MOG35-55	70.9 ± 44.5	81.5	3.2 ± 13	3.8	91.6%	8 of 8	7.6 ± 10.1
2	GM-CSF + MOG	78.4 ± 36.3	93.5	3.8 ± 0.7	4.0	84.9%	8 of 8	7.7 ± 6.3
2	GMCSF-MOG	3.0 ± 8.5	0.0	0.3 ± 0.7	0.0	100.1%	1 of 8	0.0 ± 0.0
2	TTV vs Saline	p = 0.001		p < 0.001		p = 0.005	p = 0.0014	p = 0.033
2	TTV vs MOG35-55	p = 0.001		p < 0.001		p = 0.030	p = 0.0014	p = 0.017
2	TTV vs "mixture"	p < 0.001		p < 0.001		p < 0.001	p = 0.0014	p = 0.004

^a Mice were treated with GMCSF-MOG, a mixture of murine GM-CSF and MOG35-55, the MOG35-55 peptide, GM-CSF, or saline subcutaneously on days -21, -14, and -7 (n = 8, all groups, 2 nanomoles per dose). Mice were then immunized on day 0 with 200 ug MOG35-55 in CFA plus Pertussis toxin (200 ng i.p.) on days 0 and 2. Table 2 and Figure 4 represent the same experiments. Data were analyzed as described for Table 1.
^b Severe EAE was defined as hindlimb paresis or paralysis (clinical score of 3.0 or greater).

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