'Inverse vaccine' shows potential to treat multiple sclerosis, other autoimmune diseases [View all]

A new type of vaccine developed by researchers at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering has shown that it can reverse autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes in lab tests — all without shutting down the rest of the immune system. Trials are only just beginning in humans, but researchers say the method holds promise.

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A typical vaccine teaches the human immune system to recognize a virus or bacteria as an enemy that should be attacked. The new “inverse vaccine” does just the opposite: it removes the immune system’s memory of one molecule.

While such immune memory erasure would be unwanted for infectious diseases, it can stop autoimmune reactions like those seen in multiple sclerosis, type I diabetes, or rheumatoid arthritis, in which the immune system attacks a person’s healthy tissues.

The job of the immune system’s T cells is to recognize unwanted cells and molecules — from viruses and bacteria to cancers — as foreign to the body and get rid of them. Once T cells launch an initial attack against an antigen, they retain a memory of the invader to eliminate it more quickly in the future. T cells can make mistakes, however, and recognize healthy cells as foreign. In people with multiple sclerosis, for instance, T cells mount an attack against myelin, the protective coating around nerves. Today, autoimmune diseases are generally treated with drugs that broadly shut down the immune system.

Hubbell and his colleagues wanted to explore an alternative approach. They 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. “The idea is that we can attach any molecule we want to pGal and it will teach the immune system to tolerate it,” explained Hubbell. “Rather than rev up immunity as with a vaccine, we can tamp it down in a very specific way with an inverse vaccine.”

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https://news.uchicago.edu/story/inverse-vaccine-shows-potential-treat-multiple-sclerosis-other-autoimmune-diseases