2023-09-13 12:22:01
A new kind of vaccine. In the United States, researchers from the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at the University of Chicago have developed a new type of vaccine. The latter might reverse the symptoms of certain autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes and Crohn’s disease.
How does this vaccine work? “It removes the memory of a molecule from the immune system. Although such erasure of immune memory would be undesirable in the case of infectious diseases, it can stop autoimmune reactions such as those seen in multiple sclerosis, type I diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis or Crohn’s disease, in which the immune system attacks a person’s healthy tissues. the press release from the University of Chicago. These findings were published in the scientific journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.
Slow down the autoimmune reaction
To develop this vaccine, researchers pooled an antigen – a molecule attacked by the immune system – with a molecule close to a fragment of an aged cell that the liver would recognize as a friend. Thanks to this, the latter might slow down the autoimmune reaction associated with a disease such as multiple sclerosis.
“In the past, we have shown that we can use this approach to prevent autoimmunity. But what is so exciting regarding this work is that we have shown that we can treat diseases like multiple sclerosis following inflammation that is already present, which is more useful in a real-world setting,” says Jeffrey Hubbell, professor of tissue engineering and lead author.
Currently, autoimmune diseases are mainly treated with drugs that suppress the immune system. “These treatments can be very effective, but they also block the immune responses needed to fight infections, leading to many side effects. If we might instead treat patients with a reverse vaccine, it might be much more specific and lead to fewer side effects. Rather than strengthening immunity as with a vaccine, we can reduce it in a very specific way with a reverse vaccine”, welcomes Professor Jeffrey Hubbell. Further additional work is needed to confirm these results.
VIDEO – Imane El Fariss, suffering from multiple sclerosis: “I woke up one morning, almost completely paralyzed”
1694608458
#vaccine #reverse #symptoms #autoimmune #diseases
