Immunotherapy for autoimmune disease

摘要

A treatment for autoimmune disease based on delivery of antigen by gene gun into the skin, or delivery of antigen-encoding DNA into the skin is described. Delivery of collagen or collagen-coding DNA is useful for treating rheumatoid arthritis, and delivery of myelin basic protein (MBP) or MBP-coding DNA is useful for treating multiple sclerosis. These antigens mitigate cytotoxic responses and elicit antigen desensitization. Other autoimmune diseases can be treated using other antigens.