A DNA vaccine for multiple sclerosis.
BACKGROUND
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease in which safety is of paramount importance when developing a potential therapeutic. Antigen-specific treatments provide a method for achieving efficacy while maintaining safety. DNA vaccines are one such form of treatment that have been tested in clinical trials


OBJECTIVE
To determine if a DNA vaccine is a viable method of antigen-specific treatment of MS.


CONCLUSIONS
Phase I and II trials of BHT-3009, a DNA vaccine encoding myelin basic protein, demonstrated that it was safe, well-tolerated, and caused antigen-specific immune tolerance. BHT-3009 showed efficacy in reducing brain lesion activity as well as clinical relapses in patients that were immunologically active at baseline. BHT-3009 is a promising therapy in development for MS, and may prove to be one of the first antigen-specific treatments for this disease.
Garren
Hideki
H
Stanford University, Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford, CA, USA. hgarren@stanford.edu
D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000628:therapy*; D010957:Plasmids; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D019444:Vaccines, DNA