Elisabeth Rose Mari

MS and EAE are T cell‐driven autoimmune diseases of the CNS where IL‐17‐producing Th17 cells promote damage and are pathogenic. Conversely, tolerogenic DCs induce Treg cells and suppress Th17 cells. Chloroquine (CQ) suppresses EAE through the modulation of DCs by unknown mechanisms. Here, we show that STAT 1 is necessary for CQ‐induced tolerogenic DCs (tolDCs) to efficiently suppress EAE. We observed that CQ induces phosphorylation of STAT1 in DCs in vivo and in vitro.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease characterized by accumulation of immune cells in the central nervous system (CNS). Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is necessary for development of CNS autoimmunity in animal models of MS, suggesting that GM-CSF also plays an important role in the pathogenesis of MS.