AsianScientist (Jul. 15, 2015) – A DNA vaccine targeting angiotensin II has shown to reduce blood pressure in hypertensive mice for at least half a year. The study documenting these findings has been published in Hypertension.
Vaccination, a well accepted intervention in the field of infectious diseases, is currently being extended to treat chronic diseases including Alzheimer disease and dyslipidemia. In hypertension, or high blood pressure, peptide-based vaccines have been clinically tested. Although these vaccines were able to cause a modest decrease in blood pressure, the effect only lasted for a few weeks.
In the present study, a research team led by assistant professor Koriyama Hiroshi and professors Nakagami Hironori and Morishita Ryuichi from Osaka University used a DNA-based vaccine targeting angiotensin II instead. Angiotensin II, part of the blood pressure regulating renin-angiotensin system, is known to increase blood pressure.
A research team led by Assistant Professor KORIYAMA Hiroshi and Professor NAKAGAMI Hironori of the Department of Health Development and Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, and Professor MORISHITA Ryuichi of the Department of Clinical Gene Therapy, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, with the aim of developing a therapeutic vaccine for hypertension, have successfully developed a DNA vaccine which targets Angiotensin II, a molecule which has been shown to increase blood pressure.
The researchers injected hypertensive mice with a plasmid vector encoding a hepatitis B core-angiotensin II fusion protein, causing the mice to produce antibodies against angiotensin II. Vaccinated mice had a decreased serum concentration of angiotensin II and lowered systolic blood pressure that was sustained over at least six months. Perivascular fibrosis in heart tissue was also significantly decreased while the survival rate was significantly improved.
In addition, the vaccine induced an adequate antibody response while avoiding the activation of self-reactive T cells, as assessed by ELISPOT assay. Furthermore, the vaccine did not induce the activation of self-reactive cytotoxic T cells, as the small size of angiotensin II prevented it from acting as a T cell epitope.
The researchers anticipate that the use of anti-angiotensin DNA vaccines in humans could reduce the dosing interval of existing antihypertensive medication, leading to an increase in adherence, decrease in cardiovascular illness and reduced medical costs.
The team is currently developing a formulation for human vaccine therapy is planning for clinical trials.
The article can be found at: Koriyama et al. (2015) Angiotensin II DNA Vaccine: Long-Term Reduction of High Blood Pressure by Angiotensin II DNA Vaccine in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats.
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Source: Osaka University.
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