A noninflammatory mRNA vaccine for treatment of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis
Christina Krienke, LAURA D. KOLB, Elif Diken, Michael Streuber, Sarah Kirchhoff, Thomas Bukur, Özlem Akilli‐Öztürk, Lena M. Kranz, Hendrik Berger, Jutta Petschenka, Mustafa Diken, Sebastian Kreiter, Nir Yogev, Ari Waisman, Katalin Karikó, Özlem Türeci, Uğur Şahin
Abstract
Precision therapy for immune tolerance Autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), result from a breach of immunological self-tolerance and tissue damage by autoreactive T lymphocytes. Current treatments can cause systemic immune suppression and side effects such as increased risk of infections. Krienke et al. designed a messenger RNA vaccine strategy that lacks adjuvant activity and delivers MS autoantigens into lymphoid dendritic 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. Science , this issue p. 145