Traditional methods of treating rheumatoid arthritis involve physical therapy to slow down disease progression and alleviate symptoms, but researchers say they are excited about a new potential treatment option.
According to researchers, they’ve developed a vaccine-like option that might be a gamechanger when it comes to rheumatoid arthritis, because it fights the underlying causes of RA. A clinical trial published in Science Translational Medicine said the vaccine has been proven safe and effective in its treatment of RA.
“Current therapies only treat the symptoms and slow the progression of disease,” said Professor Ranjeny Thomas, head of the autoimmunity division at the University of Queensland Diamantina Institute in Australia. “We have designed a vaccine-style treatment or ‘immunotherapy’ specifically for individuals carrying high-risk rheumatoid arthritis genes and specific rheumatoid arthritis antibodies, called anti-CCP. This treatment teaches the patient’s immune system to ignore a naturally occurring peptide that is incorrectly identified as ‘foreign,’ resulting in the production of CCP antibodies and causing inflammation.”
How It Works
Interestingly, the vaccine isn’t made of “foreign” components. According to researchers, the serum was developed by taking blood from each patient suffering from RA, treating and retraining the cells, and then re-injecting the blood back into the patient. The injection of the modified cells was proven to be safe, and it actually helped stop RA flares before they began.
Although it looks like a good avenue to continue exploring, researchers said the current methods used to treat a patient through this method is too burdensome.
“At this stage, the technique would not be ideal for widespread treatment or prevention of rheumatoid arthritis because it’s costly and time-consuming,” said Thomas. “However, the promising results of this trial lay the foundations for the development of a more cost-effective, clinically-practical vaccine technology that could deliver similar outcomes for patients,” she added.
Other doctors have faith in the science as well. Natural health practitioner Jenna Stone said using a person’s own treated cells to combat a condition is a great idea to test.
“It makes sense that a vaccine created by a patient’s own modified cells would in essence retrain their immune system, if they have an autoimmune disorder. In autoimmune illnesses like rheumatoid arthritis, we see the immune system attacking healthy cells instead of harmful invaders like it was created to do.”
Hopefully we can conduct more clinical trials on this technique and greatly reduce the cost and time consumption needed to develop this vaccine. I think it could be very beneficial for patients with RA.
Related source: HealthLine