Inverse Vaccine May Reverse Autoimmune Diseases

Researchers from the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago have developed a new type of vaccine called an “inverse vaccine” via a mouse model that was able to completely reverse autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes and Crohn’s disease without fully shutting down the rest of the immune system in the mice.

While a regular vaccine induces immune cell activation to create cells that can kill infected cells and generate antibodies that can bind to and neutralize viruses that would infect them, an inverse vaccine can instead unwind such immunity, according to Jeffrey Hubbell, PhD, a professor in tissue engineering at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago and lead author of the study. “In an autoimmune disease, we are seeking inverse vaccines that can deactivate immune cells that have erroneously been licensed to attack one’s own cells and even generate cells that can act so as to further tamp down immunity, called regulatory T cells,” said Dr. Hubbell.

For the study, Dr. Hubbell and his team used a mouse model of a multiple sclerosis-like disease called autoimmune encephalomyelitis. In both conditions, the immune system mistakenly attacks myelin, which forms a protective sheath around the body’s nerves, including those in the spinal cord and brain. When the inverse vaccine was administered, scientists reported the immune system stopped attacking myelin. This allowed the nerves to begin functioning correctly and reversed disease symptoms in the mice. “The body has a number of mechanisms to prevent autoimmunity,” Dr. Hubbell explained. “One such mechanism prevents autoimmune responses to our own aging and dying cells. Such cells in the blood are cleared by specialized cells in the liver and are processed in a way that induces and maintains tolerance to that dying cell debris. In our approach, we have created molecules that both look like debris from dying cells and bear the proteins that are attacked in a particular autoimmune disease. This hijacks one of the mechanisms the body uses to maintain tolerance.”

Clinical testing of the vaccine has already started for certain conditions.