mRNA – Multiple Sclerosis

Angie SzumlinskiAnnouncements, Featured

Autoimmune diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS), result from a breath of immunological self-tolerance and tissue damage by autoreactive T lymphocytes. Current treatments can cause systemic immune suppression and side effects such as an increased risk of infections. Krienke et al. designed a messenger RNA vaccine strategy that lacks adjuvant activity and delivers MS autoantigens into lymphoid cells. This approach expands a distinct type of antigen-specific effector regulatory T cell that suppresses autoreactivity against targeted autoantigens and promotes bystander suppression of autoreactive T cells against other myelin-specific autoantigens. In mouse models of MS, the vaccine delayed the onset and reduced the severity of established disease without showing overt symptoms of general immune suppression.

The ability to control autoreactive T cells without inducing systemic immune suppression is the major goal for treatment of autoimmune diseases. The key challenge is the safe and efficient delivery of pharmaceutically well-defined antigens in a noninflammatory context. In several mouse models of multiple sclerosis, the disease is suppressed by treatment with such m1ψmRNA. The treatment effect is associated with a reduction of effector T cells and the development of regulatory T cell populations.

This is all very scientific however if you have even one resident living in your center with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, it is worth keeping an eye on the research! Remember, MS is a debilitating, life-changing disease that usually affects people in the prime of their lives. Great research! Stay the course, stay well, get vaccinated, and stay tuned!