-----------------------------------
Name: hboclinic
E-mail: hboclinic at earthlink.net
Date: 05/01/95
Time: 00:21:11
Cecil Czerkinsky, of the University of Goteborg in Sweden,
presented a paper at American Association of Immunologists,
in Atlanta, Georgia several weeks ago. He has developed a
novel way of treating autoimmune disorders. Autoimmune
disease can suppressed or stopped by attaching a fragment of
a substance that the immune system had previously recognized
as foreign to a cholera toxin fragment. When fed to animals,
a single, small dose of this drug permanently shut down
either of two experimentally induced autoimmune
diseases.
Of the two primary components of cholera toxin, only the A
chain is actually poisonous. The B chain not only anchors the
molecule to the intestine, it also stimulates the immune
system. Individuals can sometimes develop a tolerance to
antigens substances that cause an immune reaction by eating
them, Czerkinsky's team fed its animals sample antigens
linked to B chains.
The therapy induced a very strong state of tolerance in the
intestine, blood and Lymph nodes. His group has investigated
the B chain for blunting undesirable immune responses in
animals.
They attach the B chain of the cholera toxin to myelin basic
protein (MPB). The drug is then given to rats experiencing MS
like autoimmunity. The drug thwarted the affects after one
dose. Other researchers have headed off MS like diseases in
animals by administering oral MBP. However that "only worked
with huge amounts MBP and before disease so suppression.
His team also prevented the joint swelling and tissue
destruction normally seen in mice with autoimmune arthritis.
The treatment, another B chain linked antigen, began weeks
after the disease had been induced.
The researchers gave S chain linked antigens
from heart grafts to mice following tissue transplants.
Immune reaction against these antigens would normally lead to
rejection of the deliberately mismatched tissue in 11 or 12
days. The treated animals accepted the tissue for 22 days,
perhaps the rejection might be avoided with better
tissue matching and multiple follow-up doses of the B chain
modified antigen.
Has anyone in this country investigating this approach for
treating MS?
How is such a molecule made?
Who can synthesize such a molecule?
