Nanoparticles to reprogram the immune system in DT1 (in animals)

A study published in Nature shows a new approach to the treatment of nanoparticle -based disease, therapeutic approach that has worked in several animal models of autoimmune diseases.The research has been developed by the group led by Dr. Pere Santamaria, from the University of Calgary and IDIBAPS, in collaboration, among others, with the research group in autoimmunity: type 1 diabetes directed by Dr. Thomas Stratmann,of the University of Barcelona.

Type 1 diabetes is caused by the so -called self -reactive T cells of the immune system.By mistake, some of these cells recognize the beta cells of insulin of the pancreas as if they were invasive, and attack them as a bacterium or a virus.Since immune cells that cause type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases are a very small part of the entire immune system, the design of therapeutic strategies capable of stopping these diseases without attacking the entire system has been difficult.

In order for T cells to activate and destroy beta cells, the former need to find their destination antigen - one of the many protein fragments expressed by the target cell - with the help of the so -called antigen presenting cells.These are aimed at presenting these targets to T cells through specialized proteins called MHC molecules (major histocompatibility complex).In patients with type 1 diabetes, this activation process leads to the programming of T cells to be destructive.

In the investigation published in Nature, the researchers generated artificial MHC molecules as a baits coated by nanoparticles, to deceive self -reactive T cells and reprogram them in regulatory T cells that allowed to eliminate the disease.In the study, this approach allows to restore normal blood glucose levels in diabetic mice.

This nanomedicinal approach has been successfully applied in other models of autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.The next important step will be to test this approach to clinical trials.The fact that it has already worked in several animal models of different autoimmune diseases, including transplanted mice with human immune cells, increases hope that this therapeutic approach will succeed in the clinical phase.

Link
Link

I've been reading a lot about this.He is really hopeful.It will take many years, but it looks very good.

That is the long -term objective and the definitive cure of the disease, find how to tell our T lymphocytes that have gone crazy, to stop trying to kill us.At the moment it is a dream.

I hope it's like that, we'll always keep hope

I published it precisely because although the article of "Nature" is February 2016, this Sunday I was cited "La Vanguardia" as one of the 10 most promising investigations of last year.

An interview with the researcher today at La Vanguardia:

The doctor and researcher Pere Santamaria knows what it is to have a disease autoimmune , in which the immune system attacks by error tissues and organs of the body itself.At fifteen, Miasthenia Gravis was diagnosed.He lost muscle strength and had to leave the water polo for a while.The eyelids fell as they could not contract the musculature that control them.It started to see double.They treated him with immunosuppressants and, in full adolescence, his face swelled to the point of having "an attractive appearance," he recalls.But what struck him most was the suffering of his parents.“I have witnessed what parents live when they have a child with a serious illness;They had worse than me. ”

This explains that, when he discovered a strategy to treat autoimmune diseases, it was proposed to become a drug that can reach patients.I could have sold the rights to a pharmaceutical multinational.But a multinational could invest in the project and then abandon it, as has happened on other occasions .“I am responsible for these drugs to have a chance;I want them to rehearse in patients. ”In one of his last works, he has demonstrated in mice that it is possible to reprogram the immune cells that attack the tissues themselves so that they become protective cells.

How did it occur to you that immune cells could be reprogrammed?
Actually, this was not my goal.In my laboratory we worked in type 1 diabetes, which is an autoimmune disease that progresses for years before causing the first symptoms.We wanted to find out if it was possible to detect the inflammation of the pancreas with magnetic resonance to achieve an early diagnosis of the disease.

Did they detect it?
We devised an experiment with iron nanoparticles equipped with a hook.When immune system lymphocytes bit the hook, they ate the iron, which allowed us to follow them.In this way, if they later attacked the pancreas, we could detect it.But something totally unexpected happened to us.

What happened?
The more lymphocytes they reached the pancreas, the less probable was the mice became diabetic.The normal thing would have been the opposite: the more lymphocytes, more inflammation and the more risk of progressing towards diabetes.

How did he advance from there?
The first temptation was to throw the results in the trash and leave the project.But it bothered me to have results that I did not understand.I turned up until one day I realized that, if I made a series of assumptions, I could explain the results.And I remember that I thought: "If this movie I am riding is true, maybe this is an important discovery."

What movie was riding?
The nanoparticles we had used had a fragment of pancreas cell protein.The objective was that the lymphocytes that attack the pancreas recognized these nanoparticles and could eat them.I told myself that, instead of continuing to attack the pancreas, perhaps the lymphocytes that bit the hook became regulatory lymphocytes, which slow the immune reaction instead of enhancing it.

What logic do you have?
Our immune system defends us as enemies.But, once the enemies have been eliminated, the attack must end.Therefore, self -control systems have been developed throughout the evolution so as not to cause damage.We have discovered that this self -control is based on converting destructive cells in regulatory cells.With the nanoparticles, we would be stimulating this natural process that already exists.

Could it be useful for treating type1 diabetes?
noOnly type 1 diabetes, but any other autoimmune disease.With this strategy, we can identify the necessary proteins to reconvert the lymphocytes that destroy the tissues in lymphocytes that interrupt the attack.

Have you tried if it works?
We have tried it in mice with autoimmune diseases such as human and also in humanized mice.That is, mice that have immune cells of patients.We start with type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.Then we have extended it to four more diseases.In all cases, autoimmune processes have been resolved.

With what side effects?
None significant, which is very important.Current treatments against autoimmune diseases are based on suppressing the immune system together, so that they compromise the ability to fight cancers and infections.Our nanomedicines, on the contrary, suppress only those lymphocytes that attack our own tissues.

Do you plan to carry out rehearsals in people?
If this works, they will be ideal drugs to treat complex and serious diseases that today do not have adequate treatment.I want to defeat these diseases.But the rhythm of progress is linked to financing.Develop a completely new drug like this and take it to the clinical trial phase requires about 30 million dollars.We have created a company and we already have 26 patents awarded.We plan to start the first clinical trial within three years in newly diagnosed people of type 1 diabetes.

Link