Dr Eric Topol had a fascinating post on his blog about a potential massive change in the treatment of Autoimmune diseases. I can’t claim to have understood all the biology nuances but I did love the following –
(1) 10% of the world’s population suffers from autoimmune diseases and these have, so far, had no cure.
(2) He goes on to explain an approach that uses inverse vaccines. So, instead of vaccines boosting the immune system, these inverse vaccines do the opposite.
(3) But, most interesting, is the fact that these diseases are the mirror image of cancer. So, while cancer causes us to lose all immunity, these result in hyperactive immune responses. So, all the progress in treating cancer with the breakthroughs in the past two decades – including mRNA vaccines and CRISPR – results in progress in treating autoimmune diseases by doing the opposite.
He closes with these concluding remarks
I hope I am able to adequately convey the excitement in this field. This represents one of the biggest shifts in a domain of medicine that we’ve seen in decades. It has been stunning to see for the first time one-shot cures in patients who were refractory to all approved treatments. There’s a paucity of true cures in medicine. Considering that 1 in 10 people have an autoimmune disease, and these conditions have never garnered the level of attention as cancer, cardiovascular, or neurodegenerative diseases, these big steps of progress are especially welcome. Mirror biology and goals of all the clinical work in cancer directly benefits autoimmune diseases, turbocharging this movement.
It’s still early, but most major autoimmune diseases are getting approached by both the engineered cell and inverse, tolerogenic vaccines. The off-the-shelf, universal engineered cell approach is ahead of the inverse vaccines so far, and the refinements in the work are extensive. Eventually, both major routes of cell therapy and tolerogenicity are very likely to pan out and we should see a big dent in autoimmune diseases in the future. Of course, for any scaling, this will require availability at low cost, limiting side effects, making in practical and accessibility to all, avoiding inequities. But given all the rapid progress I’m confident we’ll get there in the years ahead. We’re seeing the initial stages of a renaissance vs autoimmunity. Curing instead of just treating autoimmune diseases.
Fascinating.
