Beyond the Magic Bullet: Current Progress of Therapeutic Vaccination in Multiple Sclerosis.

ABSTRACT: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic immune-mediated disease of the central nervous system (CNS) characterized by neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration and impaired repair mechanisms that lead to neurological disability. The crux of MS is the patient's own immune cells attacking self-antigens in the CNS, namely the myelin sheath that protects nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord. Restoring antigen-specific tolerance via therapeutic vaccination is an innovative and exciting approach in MS therapy. Indeed, leveraging the body's attempt to prevent autoimmunity, i.e., tolerization, focuses on the underlying cause of the disease and could be the key to solving neuroinflammation. In this perspective, antigen-specific vaccination targets only the detrimental and aberrant immune response agains

SUBMITTER: Willekens B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5976685 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature