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perestroika@slrpnk.net

“Inverse vaccine” shows potential to treat multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases (pme.uchicago.edu)

submitted 1 year ago by perestroika@slrpnk.net to c/science@slrpnk.net

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The inverse vaccine, described in Nature Biomedical Engineering, takes advantage of how the liver naturally marks molecules from broken-down cells with “do not attack” flags to prevent autoimmune reactions to cells that die by natural processes.

PME researchers coupled an antigen — a molecule being attacked by the immune system— with a molecule resembling a fragment of an aged cell that the liver would recognize as friend, rather than foe. The team showed how the vaccine could successfully stop the autoimmune reaction associated with a multiple-sclerosis-like disease.

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[–] perestroika@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The process had been known for a while, but researchers got considerably better at recreating it artificially. :) The potential of this method for treating acquired autoimmunity and allergies looks big, to say the least. It is less likely to help against translplant rejection.

Hubbell and his colleagues knew that the body has a mechanism for ensuring that immune reactions don’t occur in response to every damaged cell in the body — a phenomenon known as peripheral immune tolerance, which is carried out in the liver. They discovered in recent years that tagging molecules with a sugar known as N-acetylgalactosamine (pGal) could mimic this process, sending the molecules to the liver where tolerance to them develops.