Dr. Neil Williams, of the University of Bristol in southwestern England, told a science conference on Monday that he and his colleagues hope to begin human safety trials of the vaccine early next year.
Autoimmune disorders, which affect about five percent of the British population, occur when something goes wrong with the immune system and it attacks the body’s own tissue.
“The vaccines we are working on are able to re-educate the immune system to reset the balances and put the controls back in place to stop these diseases from continuing to progress,” Williams said.
The vaccines are based on a protein derived from a bacterium. Williams found that when it is introduced into the body it turns on the immune system controls and stops inflammatory diseases like arthritis and diabetes.