Peptide fragments of myelin basic protein

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION All patent applications, patents and publications cited in this specification are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
In the case of inconsistencies, the present disclosure, including definitions, will prevail.
As used herein, "suppression" includes any measurable reproducible reduction in T-cell proliferation in response to factors that normally stimulate those cells.
However, it should be emphasized that the present invention is concerned only with the suppression of proliferation of deleterious T-cells, that is proliferation of T-cells that promote autoimmune attack (CD4.
sup.
+ T-cells specific to a self-antigen, e.
g.
MBP).
Indeed, an important aspect of the present invention is the ability to induce suppression in a restricted manner, where the suppression of deleterious T-cells specific to a self antigen is the result of choice of the fragment or fragments of MBP administered and/or the method of administration, as discussed below.
Suppression of the deleterious T-cell proliferation can also be measured indirectly, i.
e.
as seen through a reduction in symptoms of a disease which are directly or indirectly caused by immune attack T-cell proliferation, such as the damage to neural tissue observed in MS, or the decrease in- the number or severity of attacks of MS suffered by MS patients.
Damage to neural tissue can be assessed for example by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and measurement of the number and severity of lesions visible therein.
Reduction in MS attack number or severity can be assessed for example by clinical evaluation of patients.
Methods for both MRI and clinical evaluation are well-known in the art.
The term "autoantigen" is defined as any substance normally found within a mammal that, in an abnormal situation, is no longer recognized as "self" by the lymphocytes or antibodies of that mammal, and is attacked by the immunoregulatory system as though it were a foreign substance.
In other words, an autoantigen is an antigen that is subject to autoimmune destruction