This will end the scourge of MS and do it soon. It also provided
intervention for all other auto immune diseases and this will surely
include arthritis also. It may even be tweaked into resolving
serious allergies.
In the end, your immune system is normalised.
The cure is not a deliverable as yet but the fact that the carrier is
already approved should allow quick adoption.
New nanoparticle
halts multiple sclerosis, now being tested in Type 1 diabetes and
asthma
November 18, 2012
In a breakthrough for
nanotechnology and multiple sclerosis, a biodegradable
nanoparticle turns out to be the perfect vehicle to stealthily
deliver an antigen that tricks the immune system into stopping its
attack on myelin and halt a model of relapsing remitting multiple
sclerosis (MS) in mice, according to new Northwestern Medicine
research.
The new nanotechnology
also can be applied to a variety of immune-mediated diseases
including Type 1 diabetes, food allergies and airway allergies such
as asthma. In MS, the immune system attacks the myelin membrane
that insulates nerves cells in the brain, spinal cord and optic
nerve.
When the insulation is
destroyed, electrical signals can't be effectively conducted,
resulting in symptoms that range from mild limb numbness to paralysis
or blindness.
About 80 percent of MS
patients are diagnosed with the relapsing remitting form of the
disease.
The Northwestern
nanotechnology does not suppress the entire immune system as
do current therapies for MS, which make patients more susceptible to
everyday infections and higher rates of cancer. Rather, when the
nanoparticles are attached to myelin antigens and injected into the
mice, the immune system is reset to normal.
The immune system
stops recognizing myelin as an alien invader and halts its attack on
it. "This is a highly significant breakthrough in translational
immunotherapy," said Stephen Miller, a corresponding author of
the study and the Judy Gugenheim Research Professor of
Microbiology-Immunology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of
Medicine.
"The beauty of
this new technology is it can be used in many immune-related
diseases. We simply change the antigen that's delivered."
"The holy grail
is to develop a therapy that is specific to the pathological
immune response, in this case the body attacking myelin,"
Miller added.
"Our approach
resets the immune system so it no longer attacks myelin but leaves
the function of the normal immune system intact."
The nanoparticle, made
from an easily produced and already FDA-approved substance, was
developed by Lonnie Shea, professor of chemical and biological
engineering at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and
Applied Science.
"This is a major
breakthrough in nanotechnology, showing you can use it to regulate
the immune system," said Shea, also a corresponding author.
The paper will be
published Nov. 18 in the journal Nature Biotechnology. Miller and
Shea are also members of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer
Center of Northwestern University. In addition, Shea is a member of
the Institute for BioNanotechnology in Medicine and the Chemistry of
Life Processes Institute.
CLINICAL TRIAL FOR MS
TESTS SAME APPROACH—WITH KEY DIFFERENCE
The study's method is
the same approach now being tested in multiple sclerosis patients in
a phase I/II clinical trial—with one key difference. The
trial uses a patient's own white blood cells—a costly and labor
intensive procedure—to deliver the antigen. The purpose of the new
study was to see if nanoparticles could be as effective as the white
blood cells as delivery vehicles. They were.
THE
BIG NANOPARTICLE ADVANTAGE FOR IMMUNOTHERAPY
Nanoparticles have
many advantages; they can be readily produced in a laboratory and
standardized for manufacturing. They would make the potential therapy
cheaper and more accessible to a general population. In addition,
these nanoparticles are made of a polymer called
Poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLG), which consists of lactic acid and
glycolic acid, both natural metabolites in the human body. PLG is
most commonly used for biodegradable sutures. The fact that PLG
is already FDA approved for other applications should facilitate
translating the research to patients, Shea noted. Miller
and Shea tested nanoparticles of various sizes and discovered that
500 nanometers was most effective at modulating the immune response.
"We administered these particles to animals who have a disease
very similar to relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis and stopped it
in its tracks," Miller said. "We prevented any future
relapses for up to 100 days, which is the equivalent of several years
in the life of an MS patient." Shea and Miller also are
currently testing the nanoparticles to treat Type one diabetes and
airway diseases such as asthma.
NANOPARTICLES FOOL
IMMUNE SYSTEM
In the study,
researchers attached myelin antigens to the nanoparticles and
injected them intravenously into the mice. The particles entered the
spleen, which filters the blood and helps the body dispose of aging
and dying blood cells. There, the particles were engulfed by
macrophages, a type of immune cell, which then displayed the antigens
on their cell surface. The immune system viewed the nanoparticles as
ordinary dying blood cells and nothing to be concerned about. This
created immune tolerance to the antigen by directly inhibiting the
activity of myelin responsive T cells and by increasing the numbers
of regulatory T cells which further calmed the autoimmune response.
"The key here is
that this antigen/particle-based approach to induction of tolerance
is selective and targeted. Unlike generalized immunosuppression,
which is the current therapy used for autoimmune diseases, this new
process does not shut down the whole immune system," said
Christine Kelley, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and
Bioengineering director of the division of Discovery Science and
Technology at the National Institutes of Health, which supported the
research.
"This
collaborative effort between expertise in immunology and
bioengineering is a terrific example of the tremendous advances that
can be made with scientifically convergent approaches to biomedical
problems." "We are proud to share our expertise in
therapeutics development with Dr. Stephen Miller's stellar team of
academic scientists," said Scott Johnson, CEO, president and
founder of the Myelin Repair Foundation.
"The idea to
couple antigens to nanoparticles was conceived in discussions between
Dr. Miller's laboratory, the Myelin Repair Foundation's drug
discovery advisory board and Dr. Michael Pleiss, a member of the
Myelin Repair Foundation's internal research team, and we combined
our efforts to focus on patient-oriented, clinically relevant
research with broad implications for all autoimmune diseases.
Our unique research
model is designed to foster and extract the innovation from the
academic science that we fund and transition these technologies to
commercialization.
The overarching goal
is to ensure this important therapeutic pathway has its best chance
to reach patients, with MS and all autoimmune diseases."
More information:
Microparticles bearing
encephalitogenic peptides induce T-cell tolerance and ameliorate
experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, Nature Biotechnology
(2012) doi:10.1038/nbt.2434,
www.nature.com/nbt/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nbt.2434.html
Journal reference:
Nature Biotechnology Provided by Northwestern University
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ReplyDeleteHi arclein,
I loved reading this piece! Well written!
Merlen Hogg
fuging