A nanotechnology-based vaccine reverses diabetes
Author: Last UchihaResearchers at the University of Calgary in Alberta (Canada) have developed a ‘nanovacuna’ therapeutic successfully reversed diabetes in a mouse model of disease. The research, published in the journal Immunity, “also reveals aspects of the autoimmune response that could lead to a therapeutic method for multiple autoimmune disorders.
Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune disease caused by the destruction of insulin-producing pancreatic cells through certain white blood cells called T cells
The researchers, led by Pere Santamaria, wanted to find a way to counter the damaging autoimmune response without affecting general immunity. They discovered that our body has a built-in mechanism that tries to stop the progression of autoimmune diseases such as diabetes type 1. “Essentially what exists is an internal tug between those who want aggressive T cells cause disease and T cells weaker than they want to stop,” said Santamaria.
The authors also developed a ‘vaccine’ based on nanotechnology that selectively strengthen weak T cells and allows them to offset the damage caused by excess activated T cells.
The vaccine consisted of nanoparticles, fields thousands of times smaller than a cell in the body, wrapped in fragments of proteins relevant to type 1 diabetes who joined MHC molecules. MHC molecules are used by other white blood cells called “antigen presenting cell ‘to’ present ‘antigens to T cells as part of immune responses.
The researchers used a mouse model of the disease and discovered that their nanovacuna mitigated the progression of type 1 diabetes in prediabetic mice and restores normal blood sugar in diabetic mice. In addition, rendering complex nanoparticles for diabetes relevant restoring the normal levels of blood sugar in a humanized model of diabetes.
Scientists say that only white blood cells produced by the disease responded to therapy with nanovacuna so the treatment may not have consequences in healthy individuals because they do not have nonspecific effects on the immune system.
“If the paradigm on which this is based nanovacuna remains true in other chronic autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis among others, these nanovacunas could be widely applied in autoimmunity,” suggests Santamaría. The investigator concluded that in principle these could be modified nanovacunas with any complex disease PMHC always relevant to participate in the disease process.
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