Sodium benzoate, a food additive and a metabolite of cinnamon, modifies T cells at multiple steps and inhibits adoptive transfer of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis.

Abstract

Experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) is the animal model for multiple sclerosis. This study explores a novel use of sodium benzoate (NaB), a commonly used food additive and a Food and Drug Administration-approved nontoxic drug for urea cycle disorders, in treating the disease process of relapsing-remitting EAE in female SJL/J mice. NaB, administered through drinking water at physiologically tolerable doses, ameliorated clinical symptoms and disease progression of EAE in recipient mice and suppressed the generation of encephalitogenic T cells in donor mice. Histological studies reveal that NaB effectively inhibited infiltration of mononuclear cells and demyelination in the spinal cord of EAE mice. Consequently, NaB also suppressed the expression of proinflammatory molecules and normalized myelin gene expression in the CNS of EAE mice. Furthermore, we observed that NaB switched the differentiation of myelin basic protein-primed T cells from Th1 to Th2 mode, enriched regulatory T cell population, and down-regulated the expression of various contact molecules in T cells. Taken together, our results suggest that NaB modifies encephalitogenic T cells at multiple steps and that NaB may have therapeutic importance in multiple sclerosis.

• Authors: Saurav Brahmachari, Kalipada Pahan
• Journal: Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) (J Immunol) Vol. 179 Issue 1 Pg. 275-83 (Jul 01 2007) ISSN: 0022-1767 [Print] United States
• PMID: 17579047 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal
• Food Preservatives
• Growth Inhibitors
• Myelin Basic Protein
• Sodium Benzoate

Topics

• Administration, Oral
• Adoptive Transfer (methods)
• Animals
• Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal (metabolism, pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• Cell Movement (immunology)
• Cells, Cultured
• Cinnamomum zeylanicum (metabolism)
• Encephalomyelitis, Autoimmune, Experimental (immunology, pathology, prevention & control)
• Female
• Food Preservatives (metabolism, pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• Growth Inhibitors (metabolism, pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• Injections, Subcutaneous
• Mice
• Mice, Inbred Strains
• Mycobacterium tuberculosis (immunology)
• Myelin Basic Protein (administration & dosage, immunology)
• Severity of Illness Index
• Sodium Benzoate (metabolism, pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• T-Lymphocytes (drug effects, immunology, pathology, transplantation)