Researchers at the University of Cambridge say their discovery of “new rules of the immune system” could improve the treatment of inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
Los scientists have discovered that the T cellsregulatorsa type of white blood cell, they move constantlyAll over the bodysearching for and repairing damaged tissues. Regulatory T cells were believed to exist as multiple populations restricted to specific parts of the body.
Now, researchers have discovered that wander through the body as a single large population of cells and target inflamed areaswhich destroy nerves and cause loss of movement.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge claim that this discovery of “new rules of the immune system” could improve the treatment of inflammatory diseases as the multiple sclerosis (EM).
“We have discovered new rules of the immune system. This ‘unified healing army’ can do everything: repair injured muscles, make fat cells more responsive to insulin, and regrow hair follicles,” says Adrian Liston, professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Cambridge, in a Press release.
“To think we could use it in a fan tan huge disease is fantastic: it has the potential to be used for almost everything,” he added.
Unified Healing Army
It is known that the effector T cellssuch as cytotoxic and auxiliary, fight infections directly and indirectly attacking viruses and bacteriatriggering a immune response.
Most of the symptoms of infectionsAs the COVID-19are due to the fact that the The body’s immune system attacks the virus, and not the virus itself. After the virus peaks, regulatory T cells should deactivate the immune response.
“They start a healing response which makes them a really powerful type of cell to combat any inflammatory condition or any autoimmune disease,” says Liston. But in some peoplethe process can be ineffective and provoke chronic problems.
He new find could make possible the use of a drug for specifically turn off the immune responsefor example, in the lungs, allowing the immune system of the rest of the body continues to function normally.
Current treatments are equivalent to “hitting the body with a sledgehammer”
According to the researchers, most of the anti-inflammatoriesoralor injectables are administered to the entire body, even if only one organ has to be treated. They hope that their discovery can change this situation with higher and specific doses of drugs and faster results.
“Now that we know that these regulatory T cells are present throughout the body, in principle we can begin to do immunosuppression and tissue regeneration treatments directed at a single organwhich would mean a great improvement over current treatmentsWhat are they how to hit the body with a mallet“says Liston.
However, in basal states, there are only a small number of these regulatory T cells in the tissues that help block, repair and initiate healing. Therefore, they cannot always effectively calm inflammation.
“We are very lucky that the regulatory T cells be a renewable resource. “They are made in an organ called the thymus that sits right above our heart, and it can constantly produce more of these cells throughout our lives,” Liston said.
According to Liston, the source of these cells, the thymus, shrinks as people become stressed, sick, or pregnant. It also reduces with age. “So there is a finite stopbut they will be continuously generated cells throughout our lives,” Liston added.
Now the research team says it is trying enhance them in patients suffering from inflammatory conditionin an organ. The team believes that a viral vector to inject DNA and make a powerful drug that increases the population of regulatory T cells.
In the case of the multiple sclerosisin which the immune system mistakenly attacks the protective covering of the nerves, this injection I would go to brain. “In multiple sclerosis, an inflammatory process occurs inside the brain that damages the central nervous system and signaling from the brain to the muscles. All of this is coordinated by the immune system“, explica Liston.
“If you can get regulatory T cells into the brain, they can turn off inflammation and also initiate a healing response“Added Liston. Until now, the study published in the journal ‘Immunity’ had only been carried out in animal models such as mice.
Researchers have analyzed regulatory T cells in 48 different mouse tissues and they have managed to transfer them, through a drug developed by them, to a specific part of the body, activating them to deactivate the immune response and promote healing in a single organ or tissue.
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