Backwards Vax Moves Forward
Can we use reverse vaccination to manage autoimmune diseases?
Researchers at the University of Buffalo, New York, have developed an unconventional vaccination approach to help manage the symptoms of chronic and autoimmune conditions. The technique, known as reverse vaccination, trains the immune system to ignore foreign substances rather than attack them.
Where traditional vaccination teaches the immune system to react to foreign invaders, the team’s antidrug antibody approach builds immune tolerance in patients by pairing enzymes and essential proteins with Lyso-PS, a fatty acid that increases the immune system’s tolerance of foreign substances. The researchers claim that this method can be used to train the body not to attack.
The treatment shows promise in both intravenous and oral formats, which the team believes could boost patient compliance.
Between studying for my English undergrad and Publishing master's degrees I was out in Shanghai, teaching, learning, and getting extremely lost. Now I'm expanding my mind down a rather different rabbit hole: the pharmaceutical industry. Outside of this job I read mountains of fiction and philosophy, and I must say, it's very hard to tell who's sharper: the literati, or the medicine makers.
