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Curing Type 1 Diabetes [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-09-22

Reverse vaccination technique in mice suggests new way to teach the immune system not to attack lifesaving treatments

A reverse vaccination approach my research team and I developed could train the immune system to ignore self-proteins and prevent unwanted immune responses.

The vaccine we developed uses one particular lipid molecule, phosphatidylserine. PS is typically located in the inner layer of a cell’s surface membrane. When a cell dies via apoptosis, a natural process the body uses to remove damaged cells, PS becomes exposed to the outside of that cell. Upon exposure, PS sends an “eat me” signal that recruits specialized cells to clear up leftover debris from the now-dead cell.

Our team had previously found that high levels of PS outside the cell also actively teach the immune system to ignore the exposed debris. So we wondered if PS could be used to help the immune system learn not to attack specific proteins.

We tested our concept on mice with hemophilia A. People with this genetic condition are unable to make the blood-clotting protein factor VIII. Although typical treatment involves administering factor VIII directly to patients to prevent uncontrollable bleeding, about a third develop an immune response against this protein after repeated exposure.

When we reverse-vaccinated the mice with factor VIII paired with an optimized form of PS, however, 75% of the mice did not develop an unwanted immune response when they were later reexposed to factor VIII over the course of four weeks. This meant that the immune system was able to learn that factor VIII was not harmful and remembered to tolerate it.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/22/2194748/-Curing-Type-1-Diabetes

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