Prospects for T cell vaccination in multiple sclerosis

Accumulating evidence indicates that multiple sclerosis, a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system, has an autoimmune origin. Since T cells reactive to myelin basic protein (MBP) are thought to play an important role in the pathogenesis of this disease, it was assumed that inactivation or depletion of this pathogenic T cell subset may have therapeutic effects in multiple sclerosis. We have recently reported that T cell vaccination, i.e. immunisation with attenuated autologous MBP-reactive T cell clones, leads to the depletion of the MBP-reactive T cells. Furthermore, this approach induced favourable clinical effects in the treated patients, encouraging further studies of T cell vaccination in multiple sclerosis.