Unmet Need
Autoimmune diseases are often treated with immunosuppressants that weaken the entire immune system, leaving patients vulnerable to infection. An ideal autoimmune therapy would establish immune tolerance to a specific self-antigen, while the rest of the immune system remains intact. One promising approach for regulating autoimmunity is via the stimulation of regulatory T cells (Tregs), which are tolerogenic and can dampen the immune responses to self-antigens. Consequently, novel methods of inducing Treg cells both in vitro and in vivo have extensive therapeutic potential in the treatment of autoimmune disease.
Technology Overview
JHU inventors have developed a tolerogenic artificial antigen presenting cell (T-aAPC) platform to presents the necessary signals to induce functional Tregs in vivo and in vitro. This platform consists of biodegradable particles that can encapsulate cytokines and express multiple types of proteins on their surface. These T-aAPCs can be surface functionalized with proteins that either broadly stimulate Tregs or specifically stimulate autoantigen-specific Tregs. This aAPC platform can be adapted to generate Tregs specific for an antigen of choice, giving it potential as an “off-the-shelf” therapy for a variety of autoimmune diseases.
Stage of Development
In vivo and in vitro data is available.
Publications
Biomimetic tolerogenic artificial antigen presenting cells for regulatory T cell induction.
Rhodes KR, Meyer RA, Wang J, Tzeng SY, Green JJ. Acta Biomater. 2020 Aug;112:136-148. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2020.06.004
