Project 467216

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, autoimmune disease that primarily affects the joints of the hands, knees, and feet of about 1 in every 100 individuals. In RA, the bodys immune system mistakenly attacks its tissues and damages the bone and cartilage that comprise the joint space, leading to deformities and stiffness. Patients diagnosed with this debilitating disease experience decreased quality of life and engagement in daily activities due to mobility restraints. Currently, the treatments of RA incur significant costs totalling over $5.7 billion annually, and there is a high risk of patients having adverse events, along with clinical remission (disease-free) rates being low (less than 10%). In addition, RA poses a growing concern as there are no curative treatment options available, and the number of individuals affected by the disease will increase as the total population ages. Thus, this project aims to develop a novel, DNA-based vaccine therapy that can reduce existing RA symptoms by first testing in human liver and muscle cells and then within humanized mouse models that resemble RA. By injecting into cells or mice, our treatment contains the genetic information to produce the fragments of proteins that are commonly targeted by the immune system in RA patients. In effect, this technique will aim to solely turn off the joint-attacking cells specific to the RA proteins and not other components of the immune system used to protect against invaders, which should decrease the swelling and inflammation of the joints. By proving the concept of the DNA vaccine in animal models, we believe our approach will steer further innovations in combating autoimmune diseases and potentially provide a life-improving therapy.