ABSTRACT: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease that affects the myelination of the neurons present in the central nervous system (CNS). The exact etiology of MS development is unclear, but various environmental and genetic factors might play a role in initiating the disease. Current treatments for MS enhance the quality of life and reduce the symptoms. One of these treatments is dimethyl fumarate (DMF), commercially known as Tecfidera. Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a mouse model that is used to study the pathophysiology of MS disease as well as the effects of possible therapeutic agents. In this study, we investigated the effects of SIMR1707 which is a novel compound designed at Sharjah Institute for Medical Research (SIMR). . Single and multiple doses of SIMR1707 demonstrated high safety in mice studies. Treatment of EAE mice with SIMR1707 was able to reduce the EAE clinical scores and maintain their body weight similar to the MS FDA-approved (DMF, Tecfidera), when they were used preventively, prophylactically, or therapeutically. The histological and immunohistochemistry evaluations showed reduced clinical features such as signs of inflammation, demyelination, and infiltration of CD3-positive T cells into the brains of the EAE mice, as compared to vehicle-treated, or untreated EAE mice. Moreover, multi-OMICS experiments including Transcriptomics, Proteomics and Metabolomics were performed to gain insights into the relevant mechanism of action of the SIMR1707 in EAE and thus its therapeutic efficacy to treat MS. Same tissue samples extracted from the cerebellum part of the brain of normal, EAE vehicle-treated, and therapeutic SIMR1707 treated mice, were subjected for the whole RNA-sequencing for transcriptomics, Nano MS for proteomics analysis and LC-MS metabolomics analysis. The multi-OMICs integrative analysis showed that the treatment with SIMR1707 downregulated key biomarkers functionally associated with top pathways including calcium signaling, PI3K/AKT, and mTOR signaling pathways, which may play important roles in EAE and MS pathophysiology. Additionally, the metabolomics-based enriched-for-action pathway analysis showed that the top significantly activated metabolites (FC > 2, p < 0.05) are cholic acid, propionic acid, sphinganine, and nutriacholic acid. Consisting with the functional enrichment pathway analysis, two potent markers, Snta1 and Fscn1, involved in the actin-binding and cytoskeleton are commonly shared between transcriptomics and proteomics and showed mRNA-protein expression correlation in SIMR1707 treated compared to vehicle EAE mice. Importantly, these two markers are involved in the MT2/AKT/GSK3 pathway and may potentially play role in MS and EAE disease
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