Pritzker Molecular Engineering researchers led by Prof. Jeffrey Hubbell showed that their compound can eliminate the autoimmune reaction associated with multiple sclerosis in a laboratory setting.
A typical vaccine teaches the human immune system to recognize a virus or bacteria as an enemy that should be attacked. The new “inverse vaccine” does just the opposite: it removes the immune system’s memory of one molecule. While such immune memory erasure would be unwanted for infectious diseases, it can stop autoimmune reactions like those seen in multiple sclerosis, type I diabetes, or rheumatoid arthritis, in which the immune system attacks a person’s healthy tissues.
I've been waiting for an advance like this for a while now. I've been thinking, "It's cool that we can make the immune system attack something, adding a target to its list of targets, but imagine if we could remove things from that list, too?" Getting closer.
Does anyone know a reasonable timeline, assuming everything works out (big if, I know) between something like this starting Phase I trials and widespread availability?
I guess it would be more difficult to get approval than the average treatment if it's the first of its kind.
Also I'm not an expert in the field, and there are probably many factors that makes speculation difficult, such as funding, and does-it-work-in-humans, and funding.