Download Press release - Austria Center Vienna

Vienna, 19 August 2015
More than three million Austrians suffer from immune disease
From 6-9 September more than 4,000 immunologists will converge on the
Austria Center Vienna for the European Immunology Congress (ECI). Basic
immunological research and immune therapies are among the focuses of this
year’s event, which will also celebrate breakthroughs in the fight against
allergies, autoimmune disease and cancer.
More than 40% of Austrians suffer from some form of immune disease, three quarters
of which are allergies
More than three million Austrians, or 40% of the population are affected by immune disease.
And of these, around two million people, present allergen sensitivities in the form of allergic
reactions at least some of the time. “There are also 650,000 patients with autoimmune
disease in Austria, which extrapolates to serious immune deficits for 7,100 people. With the
incidence of immune disease on the rise among the general population, immunologists are
increasingly branching out into cancer treatment. Currently around 30,000 people are
receiving some form of immunological intervention. The 8,000 Austrians that receive organ or
bone marrow transplantats also require support,” explains this year’s ECI Congress
President Prof. Winfried F. Pickl, Head of Department at the Medical University of Vienna’s
Institute of Immunology. “Thankfully, increased calls for immunological treatments is offset by
advances in diagnostics which means that immune disease is more readily identified. The
latest treatments using recombinant allergy vaccinations and new findings relating to the
hygiene hypothesis are also turning up strong explanations and opening the door to new
starting points for treatments,” Prof. Pickl added.
Active immune therapy still offers the best immune protection
Active immune therapy starts with the mother who, if immunological passive immunity
does its job properly, passes on the majority of her antibodies to the unborn child. The long
half lives and stability of these antibodies ensure that infants are protected from serious
infectious diseases for the first six to nine months of their lives. During this period, active
vaccination programmes also begin to protect babies. Immunological “herd protection”, i.e.
vaccinating fathers, other family members and the general population helps to significantly
reduce the risk of illness for the weakest members of society. But if vaccine fatigue sets in –
as is currently the case with measles and diphtheria – the incidence of life-threatening illness
goes up, with children particularly hard hit. For this reason, preventive vaccines continue to
represent the best available immune protection. Vaccinations are not just a pivotal aspect of
juvenile health care, adults need to ensure they are protected, too. They are particularly
important when it comes to fending off viral diseases such as influenza, which pose a
significant threat to the very old as well as the very young. As the level of protection provided
by the first active vaccination can decline over time, people can actively start to build up the
necessary resistance required in later life from middle age onwards. With this in mind, the
range of vaccinations available is growing all the time – from meningococcal and
pneumococcal meningitis to new strains of influenza to Ebola. “I like to compare active
immune therapy with wearing a seatbelt when driving”, Pickl explained. “People who are
Page 1 of 5
vaccinated are protected in much the same way as a driver out on the roads. While most
people won’t experience an accident, for those that do, a seatbelt is a real lifesaver.”
Landsteiner and Pirquet set scientific milestones
Austria and Vienna have a long tradition of basic immunological research and clinical
immunology. The first allergy was described by the Austrian paediatrician Clemens von
Pirquet. If Pirquet and his contemporaries had not defined this term still further and
separated it out from serum sickness – which comes from repeated dosages of
fundamentally protective animal-based hyper immune serums – then the term allergy would
continue to apply to the allergic diseases associated with the E (IgE) class of antibodies to
this day. IgE is a specific category of antibodies which are responsible for communicating
allergic reactions in the body. If allergen-specific IgE is found in a person’s serum, then the
correct diagnosis would be a sensitisation. Found in the blood and other bodily fluids, these
special proteins are meant to protect the body from things like parasitic infestation and
animal venom. In the event of allergic sensitisation and disease, these IgE antibodies target
largely harmless environmental proteins found in pollens, foodstuffs and dust mite deposits.
Contact with sensitising allergens can rapidly trigger allergic reactions.
The Nobel Prize winner Karl Landsteiner is another of the great Austrian immunologists.
Credited as the discoverer of blood groups and the rhesus factor, he paved the way for blood
transfusions and the treatment of rhesus incompatibility in expectant mothers. Landsteiner’s
pioneering work has helped to save millions of lives and enabled countless children of
parents with critical rhesus incompatibilities to lead normal lives. The pioneers of immune
research in Vienna at the turn of the century will be the focus of an exhibition entitled
Emerging Immunology – Vienna’s Contributions hosted in the Austria Center Vienna foyer for
the full duration of the Congress.
In a nod to this strong tradition and thanks to the initiative of the Austrian Society of
Allergology and Immunology, Austria is at the vanguard of international knowledge transfer
due to the work of organisations such as the European Federation of Immunological
Societies (EFIS) which hosts the ECI Congress and the International Union of Immunological
Societies (IUIS). This international exchange is an essential part of building up cross-border
networks and research teams, and driving forward immunological research activities in
Austria. This is accomplished via the immunological and allergological research focuses at
the medical and main universities of Vienna, Graz, Innsbruck and Salzburg as well as the
University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. The forward-looking and prudential support
offered by national and international funding programmes also play a significant role
(national: the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG),
Christian Doppler Society, (CDG), Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW); International: the
European Union’s FP7 programme). Austria is also in the enviable position of hosting a
number of respected international companies and start-ups with a focus on immunology and
allergy research and development programmes such as Affiris, Baxalta, Boehringer
Ingelheim, Biomay, and Fresenius.
Page 2 of 5
ECI Congress backs basic research and new treatment methods
The 4th European Congress of Immunology focuses on various aspects of basic
immunological research including the development and function of a group of cells known as
innate lymphocytes some of which have only been described recently for the first time.
Discovered a short time ago, they are a mirror-image of adaptive lymphocytes and can help
to better explain the origins of allergies and autoimmune disease. The second major focus of
the conference is on the latest developments in the fight against immune mediated diseases.
New vaccinations and IgE adsorption deliver allergy treatment successes
In the past, identifying which allergens the body triggers a response to was a difficult and
potentially error-prone undertaking as it involved the use of allergen extracts such as birch
pollen, which are particularly time-consuming to harvest. These natural extracts often contain
strains of different allergens and can carry varying concentrations of individual allergens from
preparation to preparation. Successful therapies require absolute clarity about which allergen
or allergens elicit a response, so that subsequent therapies can concentrate on the specific
triggers. Nowadays recombinant allergens can be used in diagnostic and therapeutic
processes. Prepared in their purest form in a test tube, they can be used to pinpoint specific
reactions to individual allergens thanks to allergen chip technology. Once the allergen
triggering the response has been identified, a combination of gene fusion and helper
antigens can be used to produce new, highly-effective vaccinations that replace long-term,
injection-based therapies with just a handful of shots. If the IgE level, i.e. the number of
antibodies in the blood that react to the allergen, is very high, a new generation of IgE
reduction methods can be used to cut the count and combat the allergic response. This
involves washing the blood in IgE adsorber columns. In many cases, the IgE level can be
reduced to such an extent that patients can be considered for anti-IgE treatments that until
now had been reserved for atopic patients with very high IgE levels. The IgE adsorber
columns were developed and produced in Austria by a team of researchers from the Medical
University of Vienna led by Prof. Rudolf Valenta working in cooperation with Biomay and
Fresenius.
Use of blocking antibodies against messenger substances and TNF to combat
autoimmune disease.
With automimmune diseases such as Rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus erythematodes,
psoriasis, Crohn’s disease and certain types of pancreatic diseases, the immune system
turns on healthy cells and must be brought under control to stop progression of the
underlying condition. While blanket treatments such as Cortisone and anti-metabolites were
widely used up to around a decade ago, modern approaches instead draw on more specific
treatment methods that directly target the inflammatory factors responsible for aggravating
the condition. Major early breakthroughs have been made in treatment of Rheumatoid
arthritis thanks to the use of monoclonal antibodies and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)
receptor globulins to block the TNF alpha-. If caught early enough, the disease can even be
“switched off” entirely. Blocking the tumour necrosis factor has now been used
successfully in the treatment of Crohn’s diseases, ulcerative colitis and various other
inflammatory diseases. Among the other blocking agents that have also proved effective in
autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis, are the antibodies against interleukin 12/23 and
interleukin 17. In such treatments, the relevant interleukins, or cellular messenger
molecules, are blocked by specific blocking antibodies. This stops the miscommunication
behind the body’s autoimmune reaction in its tracks. Production of these therapeutic
antibodies which are used to such great effect on patients today is directly attributable to the
Page 3 of 5
strides made in basic research – particularly thanks to the description of a technique for
the production of monoclonal antibodies in mice by Köhler and Milstein in the 1970s, for
which they won the Nobel Prize in 1975, as well as the continued development of partially or
fully humanised antibodies using contemporary molecular biological methods.
Modern cancer therapies based on immunological approaches
Though not all cancers automatically have an immunological component, immunotherapy
can be used to treat many of them, with passive therapies currently among the most
prevalent. Monoclonal antibodies have been used successfully in the treatment of leukaemia
and breast cancer by helping the body fight off cancer cells, an approach which has since
been extended to many other types of cancer. In many cases, innovative cancer therapies
are applied in conjunction with conventional chemotherapy, with combination treatments
significantly improving patient outcomes. One such example, anti-B cell therapy, has been
used in the treatment of B cell leukaemia/lymphoma for a good 15 years now. Currently,
researchers are focusing on check point inhibitors which are used to regulate the immune
system’s response to cancer cells. Clinical studies have groundbreaking results. This new
form of therapy is based on the fact that tumour cells have the capacity to slow the immune
system at specific check points. It is possible to disrupt the effect of the tumour on the
immune system if the body is given monoclonal antibodies that work against these check
points. As a result, the immune system can stage a more effective defence against tumour
cells. This particular method has already been used successfully in the treatment of skin
cancer, with clinical trials for other cancer types currently in progress.
Cell-based therapies used to treat cancer are extremely promising. Modern science makes it
possible to enhance lymphocytes through the addition of receptors which react to specific
types of tumours. The process involves harvesting lymphocytes from the patient and adding
cancer-specific receptors known as chimeric antigen receptors, or CARs, before
reintroducing them via an infusion. These receptor-modified lymphocytes have the ability to
recognise cancer cells and destroy them. This form of therapy is used in patients for whom
chemotherapy and/or antibody therapy alone fails to yield satisfactory results.
This and other therapeutic approaches – as well as the latest basic research findings that
help to initiate fresh approaches and working hypotheses – will be presented and discussed
by a group of leading international experts a the ECI congress.
“Modern day immunological research continues to focus on the development of more
effective active and passive vaccinations, combating autoimmune disease and using
immunological cancer therapies to improve the body’s ability to fight tumours. Basic research
is an essential part of this approach, as without it, none of these milestones would have been
possible in the first place,” Pickl concluded.
About EFIS and ECI
The European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS) umbrella organisation
represents 14,000 immunologists from 31 countries. EFIS’ 31 member organisations
promote immunological research and training, and support international networking among
participants. Organised by EFIS and hosted in Vienna from 6-9 September, the 2015 ECI
Congress is expected to attract 4,000 immunologists.
Page 4 of 5
About the Austria Center Vienna
The Austria Center Vienna (ACV) is operated by Internationales Amtssitz- und
Konferenzzentrum Wien, Aktiengesellschaft (IAKW-AG), which is also responsible for
maintaining the Vienna International Centre (VIC). The ACV is Austria’s largest conference
centre, with 24 halls, 180 offices and meeting rooms, and some 42,000 square metres of
event space (including 22,000 square metres of exhibition space), and is one of the top
players on the international conference circuit. IAKW-AG and the ACV are headed by Chief
Executive Officer Susanne Baumann-Söllner. www.acv.at.
Contact
IAKW-AG – Austria Center Vienna
Claudia Reis
Press Officer
Tel:
+43 (0)1 26069-331
E-mail: [email protected]
www.acv.at
Page 5 of 5