Vaccines, which have traditionally provided protection from invading organisms, may protect people from themselves - that is, from the part of the immune system that sometimes attacks the body's own tissues by mistake. A T cell vaccine, made from the recipient's own white blood cells, shows promise as a treatment for autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), according to researchers in Belgium and the US.
Normally, T cells orchestrate the body's total immune response. But in people with MS, some of these cells turn 'autoreactive': they invade the central nervous system and attack the myelin sheath that encases and protects nerves. These T cells appear to target a specific chemical in the myelin sheath called myelin basic protein (MBP).
People with MS develop chronic inflammation of the nervous system and eventually become paralysed. Researchers think that reducing the number of T cells that target MBP in MS patients could ...
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