Researchers say that a simple vaccine could halt the onset of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Chrohn’s. In autoimmune diseases, the immune system mistakenly attacks tissues of the body. The new vaccine which is based on nanotechnology can halt this process without causing any severe side effects.
In a crucial discovery, experts from Weizmann Institute have unearthed new antibodies that seemed to treat autoimmune diseases in mice in the laboratory trails. The team used a method known as MMP (members of the matrix metalloproteinase) immunization. The enzyme MMP9 is a key player in autoimmune procedures.
So, researchers thought that stimulating the immune system of the mice to target that particular enzyme would most possibly produce antibodies that obstruct the enzyme at its site. When experts administered synthetic metal zinc-histidine complex at the centre of the MMP9 active location in mice, they identified that antibodies seemed analogous to MMP inhibitors known as TIMPs.
These antibodies called as metallobodies apparently got in touch with the fissure of enzyme and generated a blockade to the functioning of the active location. The metallobodies seemed to work for only two variants of the MMP family, first is MMP2 and other is MMP9 which attached firmly to mice and human types of enzymes.
Once an autoimmune disease such as Crohn’s was reproduced in mice, then symptoms were hypothetically controlled because the mice were exposed to metallobodies. According to lead author Prof Irit Sagi from the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, the discovery could prompt more effective treatments.
They are exited not by the potential of this method to treat Crohn’s, but by the potential of using this approach to discover novel treatments for many other diseases. Professor Sagi and colleagues treated the mice with a rodent version of Crohn’s, a chronic condition usually causes inflammation in the gut.
The study findings showed that untreated mice administered with the vaccine experienced only constrained symptoms, while untreated mice suffered severe damage to their colons. The study was published in the journal Nature Medicine. The new approach is enormously accurate and effective that earlier approaches. However, further study is required before experts can be sure that the therapy is safe for human beings.