title: Therapeutic effects of PADRE-BAFF autovaccine on rat adjuvant arthritis.
abstract: B cell activating factor (BAFF) is a cytokine of tumor necrosis factor family mainly produced by monocytes and dendritic cells. BAFF can regulate the proliferation, differentiation, and survival of B lymphocytes by binding with BAFF-R on B cell membrane. Accumulating evidences showed that BAFF played crucial roles and was overexpressed in various autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematous (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). This suggests that BAFF may be a therapeutic target for these diseases. In the present study, we developed a BAFF therapeutic vaccine by coupling a T helper cell epitope AKFVAAWTLKAA (PADRE) to the N terminus of BAFF extracellular domains (PADRE-BAFF) and expressed this fusion protein in Escherichia coli. The purified vaccine can induce high titer of neutralizing BAFF antibodies and ameliorate the syndrome of complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) induced rheumatoid arthritis in rats. Our data indicated that the BAFF autovaccine may be a useful candidate for the treatment of some autoimmune diseases associated with high level of BAFF.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Department of Neurology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, 17 Changle West Road, Shaanxi, Xi'an 710032, China.
authors.forename: Guo-dong
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Department of Biopharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Fourth Military Medical University, 17 Changle West Road, Xi'an 710032, China ; The Biotechnology Center, Fourth Military Medical University, 17 Changle West Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710032, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-chang
authors.initials: XC
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Department of Biological Science and Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
authors.forename: Mei-li
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA.
authors.forename: Xian-feng
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Department of Biopharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Fourth Military Medical University, 17 Changle West Road, Xi'an 710032, China.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Department of Biopharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Fourth Military Medical University, 17 Changle West Road, Xi'an 710032, China.
authors.forename: Nan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Department of Biopharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Fourth Military Medical University, 17 Changle West Road, Xi'an 710032, China.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Department of Biopharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Fourth Military Medical University, 17 Changle West Road, Xi'an 710032, China.
authors.forename: Zeng-lu
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Department of Biopharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Fourth Military Medical University, 17 Changle West Road, Xi'an 710032, China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Department of Biopharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Fourth Military Medical University, 17 Changle West Road, Xi'an 710032, China.
authors.forename: Wei-na
authors.initials: WN
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Department of Biopharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Fourth Military Medical University, 17 Changle West Road, Xi'an 710032, China.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Department of Biopharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Fourth Military Medical University, 17 Changle West Road, Xi'an 710032, China.
authors.forename: Cun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Department of Biopharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Fourth Military Medical University, 17 Changle West Road, Xi'an 710032, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology, Department of Biopharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Fourth Military Medical University, 17 Changle West Road, Xi'an 710032, China ; The Biotechnology Center, Fourth Military Medical University, 17 Changle West Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710032, China.
authors.forename: Ying-qi
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000906:Antibodies / Q000097:blood; D001169:Arthritis, Experimental / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D054991:Autovaccines / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D053264:B-Cell Activating Factor / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D000906:Antibodies; D054991:Autovaccines; D053264:B-Cell Activating Factor; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins