A DNA vaccine for multiple sclerosis

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease in which safety is of paramount importance when developing a potential therapeutic. Antigen-specific treatments provide a method for achieving efficacy while maintaining safety. DNA vaccines are one such form of treatment that have been tested in clinical trials Objective: To determine if a DNA vaccine is a viable method of antigen-specific treatment of MS. Resultslconclusion: Phase I and II trials of BHT-3009, a DNA vaccine encoding myelin basic protein, demonstrated that it was safe, well-tolerated, and caused antigen-specific immune tolerance. BHT-3009 showed efficacy in reducing brain lesion activity as well as clinical relapses in patients that were immunologically active at baseline. BHT-3009 is a promising therapy in development for MS, and may prove to be one of the first antigen-specific treatments for this disease.