New DNA Vaccine for MS

A report in this week’s online issue of Archives of Neurology said there could be fresh hope for patients suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS). The article mentioned a new DNA vaccine that worked on the patient’s brain as well as the immune system and provided relief.

The vaccine is being called BHT-3009 for now. A team of researchers led by Dr. Amit Bar-Or, M.D., who currently works with the Montreal Neurological Institute, tested the vaccine on a test group of 30 randomly selected patients between 2005 and 2006.

The vaccine encodes an entire length of human myelin basic protein. This is important, because in MS patients, the immune system and the antibodies attack the myelin, which exists as a sheath around a patient’s nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.

Specifically, the patient’s immune system and antibodies target specific entities within the myelin, e.g. the myelin basic protein. Researchers also suspect the involvement of specific cytokines, which are proteins produced by cells that act as data triggers.

All the patients selected for the test vaccine suffered from either relapsing-remitting MS, or secondary progressive MS. These are two conditions the patients may suffer from. A patient suffering from relapsing-remitting MS suffer from the disease in stretches, accompanied by periods of remission.

Secondary progressive MS, as the term suggests is a more advanced stage of the disease, where the patient’s condition deteriorates over time and he has ever fewer remission periods.

The research team gave the test group either a placebo or a vaccine. They were given the vaccine at the end of the first, third, fifth, and ninth weeks. The dosages varied between 0.5, 1.5, or 3 milligrams. Some of the patients were administered a form of medication called atorvastatin calcium in the form of 80 milligram pills.

Those patients who were receiving placebos were given four BHT-3009 injections during the 13th week.

The team also put the patients through an MRI at the start of the week. The MRI was repeated on various dates, primarily at the end of the following weeks – 5, 9, 13, 26, 28 and 50.

The researchers found after the test that the vaccine was quite effective in controlling the disease. A second, larger trial, titled Phase 2b, is on for the vaccine currently. This trial involves at least 290 patients.

The importance of this new technique of testing assumes greater significance when you consider the bigger possibilities - there could be DNA-specific vaccines for all major ailments.