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German pharmaceutical company BioNTech has published the first data on the preclinical application of the principle behind its anti-COVID-19 vaccine that could treat autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis, reports EFE.
In a study published this Friday by the journal “Science”, the company shows that it succeeded in developing an mRNA vaccine tested in “complex models of multiple sclerosis in mice” where it was observed to suppress the disease, according to agerpres.ro.
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The new approach “addresses key areas in the treatment of autoimmune diseases, such as systemic immunosuppressive therapy,” BioNTech said of the study, in which several research departments at the Johannes Gutenberg University Medical Center in Mainz, central Germany collaborate.
The company, which together with the Americans from Pfizer has developed one of the approved vaccines against COVID-19, notes that this is the first application of its mRNA technology to induce antigen-specific immunomodulation in autoimmune diseases.
Autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS) are conditions in which the immune system stops working properly and attacks healthy cells or tissues in the body; The inflammation of MS destroys the protective myelin layer that covers nerve fibers.
This destructive action disrupts the ability to transmit signals to nerve cells and tissues and causes a wide variety of neurological, sensory and motor symptoms that differ from one individual to another, according to BioNTech.
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In all models investigated in mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), the vaccine “was able to prevent symptomatic disease, and in mice at an early stage of the disease disease progression was reduced and motor functions were restored,” he said. the German company. .
The vaccine is based on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology, which can inject instructions or molecules into the body that can cause cells to make certain proteins.
In the COVID-19 vaccine, BioNTech and Pfizer used mRNA to produce the S protein (Spike) of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the “key” used by the new virus to enter the cell.
Multiple sclerosis is a progressive autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system and is usually diagnosed in young adults between the ages of 20 and 40, and three out of four patients are women.
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