Scientists are one step closer to developing the world's first vaccine for heart disease that will reduce immune-based inflammation in arteries, leading to decreased plaque buildup.
Washington: Scientists are one step closer to developing the world's first vaccine for heart disease that will reduce immune-based inflammation in arteries, leading to decreased plaque buildup.
The fundamental discovery has shown positive signs for the development of an autoantigen-specific vaccine for reducing the amount of atherosclerotic plaques in mice.
ADVERTISEMENT
Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the arterial walls which thicken due to accumulation of cholesterol and triglycerides.
"The T-cell peptide-based vaccine could aid in preventing heart disease and stop or reduce disease progression. The vaccine could also target strokes which are a product of plaque buildup in arteries," said Harley Tse, a professor of immunology and microbiology in Wayne State University's school of medicine.
The discovery was made in the laboratory of Klaus Ley, a prominent vascular biologist of La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LIAI).
Shaw and Tse demonstrated that two T cell epitopes of the autoantigen "apoB100" are deeply involved in the development of the disease.
Although T-cells of the immune system are known to participate in the development of heart disease, by what and how these T-cells are directed to act has not been elucidated.
"With the discovery of the disease-causing T-cell epitopes, we can now manipulate the activities of the T-cells responding to these epitopes to control the disease," Shaw said.
Shaw and Tse conceptualised that finding the "apoB100" epitopes capable of stimulating the disease causing (atherogenic) T-cells is a prerequisite to understand how these T-cells are involved in heart disease development and how to control their adverse effects.
They identified two short sequences of "apoB100" that were able to direct specific T-cells to proliferate as well as to cause worsening atherosclerosis.
"This discovery is significant because it identifies the target T-cells and makes it possible to manipulate this population of pathologic T-cells away from their harmful activities," Shaw and Tse said.
The novel discovery is reported in the Journal of Immunology and Clinical Research.
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
