Patent ID: 8053627

Claim:
A method of reducing neuronal demyelination comprising administering to a myelinating cell an effective amount of a therapeutic small molecule identified by a method comprising: a) administering a candidate small molecule to a transgenic mouse whose genome comprises: (i) a stably integrated transgenic nucleotide sequence encoding interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) operably linked to an inducible promoter; and (ii) a heterozygous knock-out of the endogenous pancreatic endoplasmic reticulum (ER) kinase gene (PERK); and b) identifying said candidate small molecule as a therapeutic small molecule when upon expression of said IFN-γ, said transgenic mouse exhibits a decreased degree of demyelination relative to a transgenic mouse having a stably integrated transgenic nucleotide sequence encoding IFN-γ as in (a), but lacking said heterozygous knock-out of the PERK gene not administered said candidate small molecule.