Vaccine for Myasthenia Gravis

Creative Biolabs provides global customers with the best solutions in the field of autoimmune disease vaccine development. We have successfully accomplished a number of projects in autoimmune disease vaccine development for myasthenia gravis. With our extensive experience and advanced platform, we are confident in offering the best vaccine development services for myasthenia gravis.

Introduction of Myasthenia Gravis

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a neuromuscular disease in most patients caused by an autoimmune response against the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AChR) at the neuromuscular junction. The autoantigen of MG is clearly defined, and anti-AChR antibodies induce antigen regulation leading to accelerated degradation of receptors at the neuromuscular junction or blockade of AChR binding sites. They also contribute to complement-dependent loss of the receptor at the neuromuscular junction, resulting in decreased expression of AChR and characteristic symptoms of MG. Moreover, autoreactive T cells cause an autoimmune response by recognizing AChR epitopes in the context of major histocompatibility (MHC) class II molecules and by playing a key role in the synthesis of anti-AChR antibodies.

Pathogenesis of Myasthenia Gravis

Several factors are currently available to explain the onset of the anti-AChR autoimmune responses that lead to MG disease: i) the main actors of the anti-AChR response are found in the hyperplastic thymus and the escape of autoreactive cells is evidenced by the bias of intrathymic selection; ii) the activation status of the B and T cells are clearly shown. It may be caused by external factors such as imbalance in hormone production or dysregulation of neuropeptides; iii) the autoantigen (AChR) is present in the thymus in both normal controls and MG patients, but the inflammatory cytokines can upregulate its expression. The coincidence of these components in a genetically susceptible individual could explain the onset of the disease, though the triggering factor is still unknown.

Fig 2 Pathogenesis of MG. (Berrihaknin, 2005)

Vaccines for Myasthenia Gravis

• T cell receptor vaccines

A pathogenic T-cell population expressing the Vβ5.1 has been defined in patients with MG expressing the HLA-DR3 haplotype. In experimental autoimmune MG, Vβ5.1 TCR vaccination proved to be efficient and associated with an increase of anti-TCR antibodies. The TCR vaccine may boost innate regulatory T-cells and antibodies directed against the TCR of pathogenic T-cells and reverse clinical deficits after the onset of the disease. Therefore, the TCR vaccination approach is effective in MG, which has the potential to improve the type and quality of care available to these patients and reduce the considerable cost of their clinical care over the long term.

• Peptide-based vaccines

The therapeutic vaccines are developed with an algorithm for the design of peptides that apparently assume complementary contours to proteinaceous autoantigenic determinants. These peptides, termed complementary peptides, can bind the target determinant and in a sense appears as antigen (Ag) receptor mimetics (ARM). Thus, when used as vaccines, they elicit anti-idiotypic (Id) responses against the combining sites of Ag receptors on certain autoreactive T and B lymphocytes. By targeting ARM vaccines to the AChR T or B cell epitope, Ab can be induced that specifically recognized and bound Ag receptors on AChR ɑ100-116 reactive T cells and AChR ɑ61-76 reactive B cells, respectively. The resulting anti-ARM Ab/Ag receptor interactions interfere with autoreactive T cells and autoreactive B cells, thereby significantly reducing the level of AChR-reactive autoAb. This, in turn, leads to significant clinical improvements in reducing muscle fatigue, reducing mortality and maintaining muscle AChR levels.

Our Services for Myasthenia Gravis Vaccine

With a variety of mature and comprehensive platforms and technologies for the evaluation and improvement of vaccine development, our platform is dedicated to providing the best solutions and protocols customized to vaccines development for MG. Our service has the following characteristics:

• Help develop vaccines with the appropriate immune response
• Provide specialized vaccine development designs and solutions based on customer needs
• Evaluation and data analysis of the immune effects of candidate vaccine

Creative Biolabs is a leader in the field of vaccine development and has focused on vaccine development services for years. We have experienced experts and advanced platforms that are able to provide excellent vaccine services for autoimmune disease. If you are interested in our services, please contact us for more details.

Reference

1. Berrihaknin, S.; et al. Vaccines against myasthenia gravis. Expert Opin Biol Ther. 2005, 5(7): 983-995.

All of our products can only be used for research purposes. These vaccine ingredients CANNOT be used directly on humans or animals.