A synthetic peptide from the third hypervariable region of major histocompatibility complex class II beta chain as a vaccine for treatment of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.
D J Topham, B Nag, S Arimilli, S Sriram
Index: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 91 , 8005, (1994)
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Abstract
Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-restricted, T-cell-mediated, demyelinating autoimmune disease of the central nervous system and represents a model for human multiple sclerosis. The present study demonstrates that vaccination of SJL/J mice with an 18-amino acid synthetic peptide from the third hypervariable region of the murine class II MHC IAs beta chain (IAs beta 58-75; 18-mer peptide) is capable of eliciting auto-anti-IAs antibodies specific for the IAs beta chain and preventing and treating EAE. A similar approach may be useful in the treatment of human autoimmune diseases in which susceptibility is linked to class II MHC genes.