Research Goin On to Develop New Vaccine for Heart Disease

Lisa Franchi July 17, 2014

Researchers from Wayne State University, in collaboration with La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LIAI), are in the process of developing a vaccine that could offer protection against heart disease.

Their study shows show proof of concept for the development of an autoantigen-specific vaccine for reducing the amount of atherosclerotic plaques in mice. If successful, the vaccine could aid in preventing heart disease and stop or reduce disease progression. In addition to heart disease, the vaccine could target strokes, which are also a product of plaque build-up in arteries.

Their findings were based on the fundamental discovery made by Harley Tse, Ph.D., professor of immunology and microbiology in Wayne State’s School of Medicine, and professor in Wayne State’s Cardiovascular Research Institute, and Michael Shaw, Ph.D., adjunct assistant professor of immunology and microbiology at Wayne State. Shaw and Tse are the first to demonstrate that two T cell epitopes of the autoantigen apoB100 are deeply involved in the development of the disease. Their novel discovery is reported in the article

"ApoB100 is an apolipoprotein of the LDL (low-density lipoprotein) particle which is the notorious ’bad cholesterol’ that contributes to the formation of plaques in the vessel wall," said Tse. "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 have not been elucidated. The lack of this knowledge has greatly hampered the development of immune peptide-based therapeutics to control the disease. 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."

Since immune T cells are normally activated by a short sequence (called an epitope), and not by the whole molecule of an antigen, the researchers theorised that finding the apoB100 epitopes capable of stimulating the disease causing (atherogenic) T cells is a prerequisite for understanding how these T cells are involved in heart disease development and for finding ways to control their adverse effects.

Source of this article:

Wayne State University