Auto-immune diseases are caused by our body's immune defense system attacking itself. There are very many of these, including type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and many many more.
Most treatments we have suppress our immune system, through cortisone or "biological" agents, and make us at risk for other kinds of infections.
To avoid this, researchers created nano-medicines, tiny particles coated with a specific protein that caused the body to destroy the auto-immune antibodies. Using mice, they were able to cure models of arthritis, diabetes and multiple sclerosis. No toxicity was seen.
Hopefully this will soon progress to use in humans, and perhaps expand to other diseases such as cancer.
Wraith D., Nature 2016 Feb 25; 530:422
No comments:
Post a Comment