LOCAL-DELIVERY OF INTERLEUKIN-4 BY RETROVIRUS-TRANSDUCED T-LYMPHOCYTES AMELIORATES EXPERIMENTAL AUTOIMMUNE ENCEPHALOMYELITIS

Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is an inflammatory aut oimmune disease of the central nervous system which serves as a model for the human disease multiple sclerosis. We demonstrate here that enc ephalitogenic T cells, transduced with a retroviral gene, construct to express interleukin 4, and can delay the onset and reduce the severit y of EAE when adoptively transferred to myelin basic protein-immunized mice. Thus, T lymphocytes transduced with retroviral vectors can deli ver ''regulatory cytokines'' in a site-specific manner and may represe nt a viable therapeutic strategy for the treatment of autoimmune disea se.