Investigating novel nanoparticulate vaccines to treat rheumatoid arthritis patients

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease that primarily affects the joints, although it can also cause symptoms in other organs such as the skin or lungs. Its treatment relies on the chronic administration of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), which can interfere with the body's immune response to pathogens or tumors. Therefore, new therapies aimed at developing an antigen-specific response to the disease are considered the future of RA treatment, as they would avoid extra-articular effects.

The goal of this project is to develop a nanoparticle-based tolerogenic vaccine that will be affordable and accessible to RA patients. One of the focuses will be to translate the results from peptide-based tolerogenic nanoparticles to human samples and to test new mRNA-based formulations. The project will also investigate the effect of DMARDs and disease status on the ability of immune cells to respond to tolNPs and differentiate into tolDCs. Finally, I will study the interaction of nanoparticles with cellular receptors in order to generate new formulations that will improve the system.

Overall, the project will contribute to the development of effective, affordable and applicable therapeutic vaccination strategies for RA patients. The wide variety of formulations (cell-based, peptide-based and mRNA-based tolNPs) may pave the way for personalized vaccination strategies, allowing clinicians to select the best vaccination strategy for each patient.

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Daniel Sáenz Fernández