FTY720-derivatives do not induce FTY720-like lymphopenia

Fty720 is an immunosuppressive multiple sclerosis (ms) drug that stimulates the expression of neuroprotective brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor (bdnf). in vivo preclinical data suggest that fty720 could be beneficial for treating parkinson's patients,though its immunosuppressive effects might limit its efficacy. two novel fty720-derivatives,fty720-c2 and fty720-mitoxy,also stimulate bdnf expression and enter brain like fty720 but are not phosphorylated,suggesting they will not produce fty720-like immunosuppression. using fty720 as a positive control,we measured low and high dose fty720-derivatives,which did not stimulate fty720-like lymphopenia or immunosuppressive signaling. these findings support the further preclinical assessment of the derivatives as potential novel parkinson's therapies. © 2017 the authors