A revolutionary treatment for autoimmune diseases could be on the horizon.
Twenty-four million to 50 million Americans have an autoimmune disease, in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks its own healthy tissue. There are over 80 types of autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, celiac disease, lupus, and psoriasis.
Current protocol treats these conditions by suppressing the entire immune system, which often requires invasive practices and ultimately leaves patients susceptible to other illnesses.
However, researchers are hopeful that a new treatment will improve the lives of millions.
Unlike traditional vaccines that intensify a particular part of the immune system, these new treatments are known as “inverse vaccines,” as they suppress specific parts of the immune system.
Inverse vaccines use synthetic nanoparticles attached to disease-related proteins, called antigens, to retrain the immune system.
These nanoparticles mimic dying human cells, and though these cells register as “foreign,” the immune system does not register them as a threat. Eventually, the immune system learns to ignore both the nanoparticles and the antigens and, in turn, stops attacking the body.
“This is the holy grail,” Northwestern University immunologist Stephen Miller told The Guardian. “We want to use a scalpel rather than a sledgehammer to treat these diseases.”
Miller is the author of a 2021 paper that demonstrated the efficacy of inverse vaccines to treat autoimmune conditions in humans.
“Twenty years ago, I would have told you this wasn’t possible … Today, I can say that it will happen. No doubt.”
Stephen Miller
That study focused on celiac disease, an autoimmune condition characterized by the immune system attacking the intestinal lining in response to consuming gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley.
Thirty-three celiac patients in remission, half of whom received an inverse vaccine and half of whom were given a placebo, ingested gluten.
After two weeks, researchers found that the intestinal lining of the inverse vaccine group showed no damage, while the placebo group demonstrated a marked worsening of symptoms.
In 2023, NYU bioengineer Jeffrey Hubbell published a peer-reviewed paper that showed inverse vaccine therapy halted the mouse version of multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system by disrupting the flow of information within the brain and between the brain and body.
Anokion, the immune tolerance company started by Hubbell, announced successful early inverse vaccine trials in humans with celiac disease and MS.
Current treatments for autoimmune diseases require frequent treatments and, in some cases, a daily regimen of medications.
In contrast, researchers are hopeful that the effects of these inverse vaccines will last for months, potentially longer.
“The immune system is incredible,” Hubbell says. “It has a memory, and that memory lasts.”
The benefits of this therapy could extend well beyond autoimmunity. Experts believe Inverse vaccines may effectively treat food or environmental allergies that trigger the immune system to overreact.
In 2022, Miller and his colleagues published a small study which found that mice treated with an inverse vaccine were able to eat more peanuts without symptoms than those who were not treated.
While this research is promising, some experts caution that the immune system is complex, comprising cells that circulate through the body and cells that reside in specific tissues. It is unclear if inverse immune treatments can affect both kinds of cells.
Opinions vary on how long it will take for inverse vaccines to be approved for human use, with predictions ranging from three to ten years.
Yet, for Miller, the possibility seems inevitable.
“Twenty years ago, I would have told you this wasn’t possible, absolutely not,” he said. “Today, I can say that it will happen. No doubt.”
