This technology utilizes nucleic acid constructs for presenting various epitopes expressed from multiple antigens to generate tolerance-inducing immune responses in a broad and effective manner.
Current therapies for autoimmune disorders, such as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis, concentrate on symptomatic response and on mitigating the immune system as a whole, which has the inherent drawback of increasing susceptibility to infections and otherwise controlled malignancies. While antigen-specific therapy has recently emerged as a potential long-term solution to autoimmune disorders, the complexity and numerous mechanisms involved in successfully eliciting appropriate tolerance-inducing immune responses while targeting sufficient numbers of disease-driving T cells has proven difficult. Due to the complexity in recapitulating simultaneous signaling at a personalized level, there is currently no treatment or platform to explore the broad combinatorial approach required for effective restoration of immune tolerance.
This technology utilizes nucleic acid constructs for optimal presentation of various epitopes expressed from multiple antigens to broadly target tolerogenic pathways. For this approach, tolerogenic cells, such as immature dendritic cells, can be transfected with variable mixtures of mRNA such that they confer a large array of expressed genes. Tolerogenic cells can then be exposed to target T cells and optimal outcomes can be selected for, helping pinpoint valuable signaling combinations and conditions. This technology enables simultaneous expression of a variety of antigens and signals in a single cell, while also providing a platform for screening and development of potential tolerogenic therapies.
This technology has been demonstrated in non-obese diabetic mice.
Patent Pending (US 20170283810)
IR CU13273
Licensing Contact: Jerry Kokoshka