Arthritogenic peptide, DNAJ, isolated from bacterial peptides and used in vaccine compositions for treating rheumatoid arthritis

摘要

Method for the production of a vaccine composition useful in inducing T-cell mediated immune protection in a host against arthritogenic peptides involved in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis. Each vaccine composition provides antigenic dnaJp1 peptide (by including the peptide or a polynucleotide, which encodes the peptide) and, optionally, other peptide fragments of the microbial dnaJ protein and/or human homologs thereof. Also described is a method for the screening of candidates by: (i)measuring cellular and humoral immune responses to an arthritogenic peptide (ii)detecting the rheumatoid arthritis susceptibility sequence in the individual's HLA DR antigens