Nanoparticles Stop Multiple Sclerosis In Mice

According to Medical News Today there has been a breakthrough of a new experimental treatment that uses nanoparticles covered with proteins to trick the immune system. These nanoparticles managed to stop disease in mice with relapsing remitting Multiple Sclerosis and by administering these particles the disease stopped abruptly. Not only did the disease stop, the nanoparticles prevented future relapses for up to 100 days in the mice which correlates to several years in humans. This approach is very similar as to using a patients white blood cells and researchers think it would be cheaper and easier.

Multiple Sclerosis is an auto-immune disease when the immune system attacks the bodies healthy tissues by mistake and releases harmful pathogens that can give rise to different diseases. Myelin, which is the protein that forms a protective shield around the nerve endings of the brain, gets attacked and destroyed and this prevents electrical signals from traveling resulting in mild numbness up to paralysis. Around 80% of people with Multiple Sclerosis have the relapsing remitting type of the disease leading them to experience the symptoms on and off. By coating nanoparticles with myelin proteins it tricks the immune system into thinking myelin is friendly so it doesn't get destroyed. These nanoparticles are 200 times thinner than human hair and are the same material as dissolvable stitches. Once the particles were injected into the mice they travel to the spleen where they were engulfed by macrophages. This in turn made the immune system think that the nanoparticles were regular blood cells and not something that should be attacked.

This therapy has multiple benefits because it does not compromise the immune system like other current therapies do. By suppressing the immune system the Multiple Sclerosis patients would be more vulnerable to infections and diseases such as cancer. The big excitement of this discovery is that it may have the ability to be used in many immune-related diseases by simply changing the antigen that is delivered to the body. Currently the researchers are testing nanoparticles in hope to treat type 1 diabetes and asthma. Not only can these particles make a significant difference in medicine but they are easily produced and easily accessible. It is exciting to read articles like this and know that we are so close to curing such common diseases that people suffer with on a daily basis.