Re: Vaccine Against Autoimmune Disease to Be Tested

[Guest guest]

Pretty cool, but it's hard to understand how they can immunize against

something that they don't know the cause of. If this protein turns on the

immune system, does this mean our immune system isn't turned on in the first

place? Does this mean that maybe the newer research that is saying

autoimmune disease is NOT a result of an overactive immune system, it is a

result of a worn out immune system may be true? It is interesting that this

protein is derived from bacteria since bacterial infection is one of the

suspects in the cause of autoimmune diseases. This will be very interesting

to follow.

a

> Vaccine Against Autoimmune Disease to Be Tested

> Mon September 8, 2003 09:52 AM ET

> By Reaney

> MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - British scientists are developing

> vaccines to reprogram the body's natural defenses against autoimmune

> diseases such as arthritis, diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

>

> Dr Neil , of the University of Bristol in southwestern England,

> told a science conference on Monday that he and his colleagues hope to

> begin human safety trials of the vaccine early next year.

>

> Autoimmune disorders, which affect about five percent of the British

> population, occur when something goes wrong with the immune system and

> it attacks the body's own tissue.

>

> " The vaccines we are working on are able to re-educate the immune system

> to reset the balances and put the controls back in place to stop these

> diseases from continuing to progress, " said.

>

> The vaccines are based on a protein derived from a bacterium.

> found that when it is introduced into the body it turns on the immune

> system controls and stops inflammatory diseases like arthritis and

> diabetes.

>

> " So far, we know that this works very well in models of these diseases

> and we will be moving into our first trials in humans in the next six

> months, " he added at the week-long meeting of the British Association

> for the Advancement of Science.

>

> Using a vaccine against autoimmune diseases is not a new concept but

> until now it has not been very successful.

>

> In a study of a strain of mice that naturally develop diabetes, the

> vaccine, which is being developed with the backing of British biotech

> company Hunter-Fleming Ltd, reduced the occurrence of the illness from

> 80 to 15 percent.

>

> If trials of the vaccine in humans are successful it would be an

> entirely new approach to treating inflammatory diseases.

> anticipates the vaccine will have to be given over a short course of

> time and may have to be repeated periodically.

>

> Dr Bunce, of the British biotech firm Xenova Group Plc, also

> told the meeting about its vaccines which are designed to reduce

> addiction to nicotine and cocaine by producing antibodies that prevent

> the compounds from getting into the brain, which is the key to

> addiction.

>

> http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews & storyID=3405076

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

a,

The wording is " turns on the immune system controls. " So, I'm assuming

that the idea is to prevent the immune system from getting out of

control and into the self-destructive cycle. Hard to say though since

there aren't very many specifics in this article.

It IS interesting, but I had the very same thought - if they don't

really know exactly what's going wrong, how are they going to do this?

As intriguing as it is, I don't think I would be volunteering to be in

the early studies.

Re: [ ] Vaccine Against Autoimmune Disease to Be

Tested

> Pretty cool, but it's hard to understand how they can immunize against

> something that they don't know the cause of. If this protein turns on

the

> immune system, does this mean our immune system isn't turned on in the

first

> place? Does this mean that maybe the newer research that is saying

> autoimmune disease is NOT a result of an overactive immune system, it

is a

> result of a worn out immune system may be true? It is interesting

that this

> protein is derived from bacteria since bacterial infection is one of

the

> suspects in the cause of autoimmune diseases. This will be very

interesting

> to follow.

> a

>

>

> > Vaccine Against Autoimmune Disease to Be Tested

> > Mon September 8, 2003 09:52 AM ET

> > By Reaney

> > MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - British scientists are developing

> > vaccines to reprogram the body's natural defenses against autoimmune

> > diseases such as arthritis, diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

> >

> > Dr Neil , of the University of Bristol in southwestern

England,

> > told a science conference on Monday that he and his colleagues hope

to

> > begin human safety trials of the vaccine early next year.

> >

> > Autoimmune disorders, which affect about five percent of the British

> > population, occur when something goes wrong with the immune system

and

> > it attacks the body's own tissue.

> >

> > " The vaccines we are working on are able to re-educate the immune

system

> > to reset the balances and put the controls back in place to stop

these

> > diseases from continuing to progress, " said.

> >

> > The vaccines are based on a protein derived from a bacterium.

> > found that when it is introduced into the body it turns on the

immune

> > system controls and stops inflammatory diseases like arthritis and

> > diabetes.

> >

> > " So far, we know that this works very well in models of these

diseases

> > and we will be moving into our first trials in humans in the next

six

> > months, " he added at the week-long meeting of the British

Association

> > for the Advancement of Science.

> >

> > Using a vaccine against autoimmune diseases is not a new concept but

> > until now it has not been very successful.

> >

> > In a study of a strain of mice that naturally develop diabetes, the

> > vaccine, which is being developed with the backing of British

biotech

> > company Hunter-Fleming Ltd, reduced the occurrence of the illness

from

> > 80 to 15 percent.

> >

> > If trials of the vaccine in humans are successful it would be an

> > entirely new approach to treating inflammatory diseases.

> > anticipates the vaccine will have to be given over a short course of

> > time and may have to be repeated periodically.

> >

> > Dr Bunce, of the British biotech firm Xenova Group Plc,

also

> > told the meeting about its vaccines which are designed to reduce

> > addiction to nicotine and cocaine by producing antibodies that

prevent

> > the compounds from getting into the brain, which is the key to

> > addiction.

> >

> >

http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews & storyID=3405076