Scientists have developed a way of modifying a microscopic
particle which could offer a new approach to tackling major diseases
such as multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes, asthma and food
allergies.
Instead of taking a drug that suppresses the entire immune
system, making sufferers more susceptible to infections and cancer,
patients may in future be given a nanoparticle treatment which can
selectively inhibit the part of the immune system responsible for
their disease.
When primed, the nanoparticle can trick the immune system into
halting its attack on the body which is a characteristic of these
diseases.
Researchers from Northwestern University in the US, funded by the
National Institutes for Health, used the technique to block the
progression of multiple sclerosis in mice. In MS, the immune system
attacks the protective myelin sheath that surrounds the nerve fibres
in the brain and spinal cord, causing symptoms ranging from numbness
to paralysis.
They injected nanoparticles attached to myelin antigens -
proteins to stop the immune system from recognising the myelin
sheath as an alien invader - which reset the immune system to normal
and halted the attack.
Stephen Miller , a professor of microbiology and one of the
authors of the study, published in Nature Biotechnology, said: "This
is a highly significant breakthrough. The beauty of this new
technology is it can be used in many immune-related diseases. We
simply change the antigen that is delivered."
The researchers have shown in their lab that the treatment can
also induce protection against other auto-immune diseases such as
Type 1 diabetes and certain food allergies. The technique may also
be used by transplant patients to reduce the problem of rejection,
by training the immune system not to perceive the transplanted organ
as alien.
