An experimental vaccine, a major breakthrough for rheumatoid arthritis

A team from the University of Toledo, United States, has developed an experimental vaccine that has shown great promise in preventing rheumatoid arthritis and improving bone quality in preclinical studies, suggesting long-term benefits after vaccination.

Currently, rheumatoid arthritis is treated primarily with corticosteroids, large-scale immunosuppressive drugs, or newer, more targeted biologics that target a specific inflammatory process. While these treatments can relieve pain and slow disease progression, they can also make patients more susceptible to infections and, in the case of biologics, can be expensive.

Lead author of the study, Dr Ritu Chakravarti, previously studied a protein called 14-3-3 zeta and its role in immune pathologies, including aortic aneurysms and interleukin-17- a disease-associated cytokine. autoimmune. Based on their previous work, the research group focused on protein as a potential trigger for rheumatoid arthritis. However, rather than preventing rheumatoid arthritis, the researchers found that removing the protein by gene-editing technology caused severe early-onset arthritis in animal models.

Working on a new theory that the 14-3-3 zeta protein protects against rheumatoid arthritis, the team developed a protein-based vaccine using the purified 14-3-3 zeta protein grown in a bacterial cell. They found that the vaccine elicited a strong, immediate and long-lasting response from the body’s innate immune system, providing protection against the disease.

“To our surprise, rheumatoid arthritis completely disappeared in the animals that received a vaccine,” commented Chakravarti. “Sometimes there is no better way than chance. We got a bad result, but it turned out to be the best result. This kind of scientific discovery is very important in this area.

In addition to suppressing the development of arthritis, the vaccine also significantly improved bone quality – a finding that suggests there should be long-term benefits after vaccination.

“We haven’t made very big breakthroughs in treating or preventing rheumatoid arthritis in many years,” said Chakravarti. “Our approach is completely different. This is a vaccine strategy based on a new target which we hope will be able to treat or prevent rheumatoid arthritis. The potential here is enormous.

The researchers said they filed a patent on their discovery, published in PNAS, and are seeking pharmaceutical industry partners to support safety and toxicity studies in the hope of establishing a preclinical trial.