Immunotherapy Treats Organ Fibrosis in Mice

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"... One estimate suggests that organ fibrosis may contribute to 45 percent of deaths in the US. ...
a potential new treatment based on vaccination against peptides that are only present in the cells that give rise to myofibroblasts—those responsible for the permanent scar tissue. Mice that received these vaccines showed reduced levels of fibrosis in their livers and lungs compared to those that received a control injection, the authors report.  ..."

From the abstract:

"Fibrosis is the final path of nearly every form of chronic disease, regardless of the pathogenesis. Upon chronic injury, activated, fibrogenic fibroblasts deposit excess extracellular matrix, and severe tissue fibrosis can occur in virtually any organ. However, antifibrotic therapies that target fibrogenic cells, while sparing homeostatic fibroblasts in healthy tissues, are limited. We tested whether specific immunization against endogenous proteins, strongly expressed in fibrogenic cells but highly restricted in quiescent fibroblasts, can elicit an antigen-specific cytotoxic T cell response to ameliorate organ fibrosis. In silico epitope prediction revealed that activation of the genes Adam12 and Gli1 in profibrotic cells and the resulting “self-peptides” can be exploited for T cell vaccines to ablate fibrogenic cells. We demonstrate the efficacy of a vaccination approach to mount CD8+ T cell responses that reduce fibroblasts and fibrosis in the liver and lungs in mice. These results provide proof of principle for vaccination-based immunotherapies to treat fibrosis."

Immunotherapy Treats Fibrosis in Mice | The Scientist Magazine® Researchers report that vaccination against proteins found on profibrotic cells reduced liver and lung fibrosis in laboratory rodents.

Vaccination-based immunotherapy to target profibrotic cells in liver and lung (open access)