New mRNA vaccination technology is making waves these days, as COVID-19 shots based on it offer an unrivaled effectiveness with other platforms. One of the successful photos, Comirnaty (BNT162b2), was developed with BioNTech technology and is being developed in the US and EU.
Now, BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin, MD, has led new research showing that an mRNA vaccine could also work in multiple sclerosis (MS).
In several MS mouse models, Sahin’s team demonstrated that an mRNA vaccine encoding a disease-related autoantigen successfully improved the symptoms of MS in sick animals and prevented the progression of the disease. disease in rodents showing early signs of MS. The results were published in Science.
MS occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks the protective layer of myelin that covers nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Existing treatments work by systemically suppressing the immune system. This can control MS, but also leaves patients vulnerable to infections.
Sahin, along with colleagues at BioNTech and scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, hypothesized that an mRNA vaccine could work specifically to help the immune system tolerate specific MS-related proteins without compromising function. normal immune.
The team presented an mRNA candidate that included genetic information encoding MS-causing autoantigens in fatty substances. In Comirnaty a similar lipid nanoparticle is used to protect the COVID-19 mRNA material until it reaches the target cells, where it produces the antigenic protein.
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In mice with autoimmune encephalomyelitis, a model for human MS, the team found that the vaccine was processed by lymphoid antigen presenting cells without eliciting a systemic inflammatory immune response, even when delivered at concentrations of very high antigen. It did not affect the ability of animals to initiate a protective immune response.
The vaccine blocked all clinical signs of MS in mice, while control animals experienced the typical symptoms of the disease. In mice that started the mRNA vaccine when small signs of disease such as tail paralysis were observed, treatment prevented disease progression and restored motor functions, the team reported.
In treated mice, the researchers observed lower levels of infiltrating and antigenic CD4 + T cells in the brain and spinal cord, and spleen T cells showed low expression of certain markers that are critical. so that immune cells can enter the central nervous system.
In addition, treatment led to the expansion of regulatory T cells, or Treg cells. This is important because MS is a complex disease in which specific autoantigens may differ from one patient to another. But Treg cells offer a more general “viewer tolerance,” which suppresses T cells against other inflamed tissue antigens, the researchers explained in the paper.
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MRNA technology is being considered a revolution in the vaccine space. Comirnaty, a partner at Pfizer, BioNTech, demonstrated 95% efficacy in preventing COVID-19 in its phase 3 trial, prompting an industry observer to predict that success “will open the door to floodgates ”of the application of mRNA especially in infectious diseases.
Sahin originally founded BioNTech to translate the idea of mRNA into cancer immunotherapy, but the company faced the COVID-19 challenge in the midst of the pandemic. Now, Sahin and colleagues believe their research shows that mRNA vaccines are also promising in the treatment of MS.
As COVID-19 has shown, mRNA vaccines can be designed quickly and mRNA can encode virtually any autoantigen. “Therefore, it is conceivable to tailor treatment to disease-causing antigens in individual patients, similar to what has been successfully performed in the framework of personalized cancer vaccines,” the researchers wrote in the study. The combination of mRNA may allow the control of even more complex autoimmune diseases, they suggested.