"Unlocking the Potential of Inverse Vaccines for Autoimmune Disorders"
In a groundbreaking development, scientists are exploring a novel approach to treating autoimmune diseases that could revolutionize the field. These "inverse vaccines" aim to train the immune system to tolerate, rather than attack, its own tissues, offering a potential solution to conditions ranging from multiple sclerosis to celiac disease.
The key lies in glycosylation-modified antigen therapy, pioneered by Jeffrey Hubbell, a tissue and molecular engineer at the University of Chicago. By attaching large sugar molecules, or glycans, to disease-causing autoantigens, Hubbell has found a way to direct these molecules to the liver and lymph nodes – the body's "schools" for immunotolerance. This teaches the immune system to recognize and accept, rather than combat, the targeted antigens.
"The immune system uses glycans primarily as a communication system, to fine-tune its response," explains Sandra van Vliet, a cancer immunologist at the Amsterdam University Medical Center. "If you change the sugar, you can change which type of immune response you get in the end."
This novel approach, sometimes dubbed an "inverse vaccine," is a far cry from traditional immunosuppressive therapies that indiscriminately dampen the immune system, leaving patients vulnerable to infections. Instead, these glycosylated autoantigens selectively induce tolerance, leaving the rest of the immune response intact.
Anokion, a Swiss biotech company co-founded by Hubbell, is now leading the charge, with multiple clinical trials underway. In a phase 1 trial for celiac disease, the company's KAN-101 drug showed promising results, reducing the activation of key immune cells and dampening the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines in response to gluten exposure.
Meanwhile, Anokion's ANK-700 is being evaluated in a phase 1 trial for multiple sclerosis, with the goal of inducing tolerance to the myelin basic protein – a key target of the autoimmune attack in this condition.
"Sometime soon, we're going to make some pretty big progress in treating autoimmune diseases in a selective way," predicts Christopher Jewell, a bioengineer at the University of Maryland who is also developing polymer-based inverse vaccine approaches.
As these innovative therapies progress through clinical trials, the hope is that they will pave the way for a new era of precision treatment for autoimmune disorders – one that harnesses the body's own mechanisms of tolerance to restore balance and alleviate suffering.
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41591-024-00024-2
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