![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Rheumatoid-Arthritis-STORY.jpg\")
<\/a>Dr. Ritu Chakravarti is an assistant professor in the UToledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences and lead author of the published paper that detailed the researchers’ findings.<\/p><\/div>\n
One of the most common autoimmune diseases, rheumatoid arthritis occurs when the body\u2019s immune system attacks and breaks down healthy tissue \u2014 most notably the lining of joints in the hands, wrists, ankles and knees.<\/p>\n
Some estimates suggest rheumatoid arthritis affects as much as 1% of the global population.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn spite of its high prevalence, there is no cure and we don\u2019t entirely know what brings it on. This is true of nearly all autoimmune diseases, which makes treating or preventing them so difficult,\u201d said Dr. Ritu Chakravarti, an assistant professor in the UToledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences and the paper\u2019s lead author. \u201cIf we can successfully get this vaccine into the clinic, it would be revolutionary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chakravarti has for years studied a protein called 14-3-3 zeta and its role in immune pathologies, including aortic aneurysms and interleukin-17\u2014 a cytokine associated with autoimmune diseases. Based on their prior work, the research group was focused on the protein as a potential trigger for rheumatoid arthritis.<\/p>\n
Instead, they found the opposite.<\/p>\n
Rather than preventing rheumatoid arthritis, researchers discovered that removing the protein through gene-editing technology caused severe early onset arthritis in animal models.<\/p>\n
Working under a new theory that the 14-3-3 zeta protein protects against rheumatoid arthritis, the team developed a protein-based vaccine using purified 14-3-3 zeta protein grown in a bacterial cell.<\/p>\n
They found the vaccine promoted a strong and immediate \u2014 but long-lasting \u2014 response from the body\u2019s innate immune system, providing protection against the disease.<\/p>\n
\u201cMuch to our happy surprise, the rheumatoid arthritis totally disappeared in animals that received a vaccine,\u201d Chakravarti said. \u201cSometimes there is no better way than serendipity. We happened to hit a wrong result, but it turned out to be the best result. Those kinds of scientific discoveries are very important in this field.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to suppressing the development of arthritis, the vaccine also significantly improved bone quality \u2014 a finding that suggests there should be long-term benefits following immunization.<\/p>\n
Currently, rheumatoid arthritis is treated primarily with corticosteroids, broad scale immunosuppressive drugs or newer, more targeted biologics that target a specific inflammatory process.<\/p>\n
While those therapeutics can alleviate pain and slow the progression of the disease, they also can make patients more vulnerable to infection and, in the case of biologics, can be costly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not made any really big discoveries toward treating or preventing rheumatoid arthritis in many years,\u201d Chakravarti said. \u201cOur approach is completely different. This is a vaccine-based strategy based on a novel target that we hope can treat or prevent rheumatoid arthritis. The potential here is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Researchers have filed for a patent on their discovery and are seeking pharmaceutical industry partners to support safety and toxicity studies in hopes of establishing a preclinical trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The experimental protein-based vaccine shows significant promise in preventing rheumatoid arthritis and improving bone quality, suggesting long-term benefits following immunization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":849,"featured_media":68957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,38,1,3,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68955"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/849"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68955"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68959,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68955\/revisions\/68959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Rheumatoid-Arthritis-Research-MAIN-150x150.jpg\")
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