Indeed, our NMO model rats exhibited paresis of hind limbs (Fig. 1G) accompanied by the loss of astrocytes (Fig. 2D–F), axon damage (Fig. 5C,D), high density of IL17-A+ T-cell infiltration (Fig. 4G), and the accumulation of activated microglia (Fig. 3B) into the thoracic spinal cord, which resemble the pathological features of human NMO16,17,19. The gene discussed is IL17A; the disease is neuromyelitis optica.