A typical vaccine teaches the human immune system to recognize a virus or bacteria as an enemy that should be attacked. The new “inverse vaccine” does just the opposite: it removes the immune system’s memory of one particular molecule. While such immune memory erasure would be unwanted for infectious diseases, it can stop autoimmune reactions like those seen in multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis, in which the immune system attacks a person’s healthy tissues.
The inverse vaccine takes advantage of a natural process in which the liver marks molecules from broken-down cells with “do not attack” flags to prevent autoimmune reactions to those cells as they die by natural processes. PME researchers coupled an antigen—a molecule being attacked by the immune system—with a molecule resembling a fragment of an aged cell that the liver would recognize as friend rather than foe.
Saved you a click (and stupid intro) …
Here’s how it works