In the news today, a team of scientists from the US, UK, and Canada have published their findings on a new and innovative technique that could lead to the development of therapeutics for a number of prevalent autoimmune diseases.
Several autoimmune disorders such as inflammatory bowl disease (IBD), rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus as well as autoimmune conditions such as transplanted cells rejection are the result of altered cytokine secretion of immune cells in the body. While the exact cause of most autoimmune diseases is unknown, altered cytokine secretion triggers the bodies immune response and often times triggers inflammation. Cytokines are proteins that are released when there is a threat to the body and act as messengers in the immune system, sending signals to immune cells to attack bacteria, viruses, allergens, and other harmful substances present within the body. There are different types of cytokines that help to regulate the immune system and tell immune cells where to go and what to do. One of the most prominent effects of cytokines is regulating inflammation, as well as signaling cell activation, cell differentiation, and cell proliferation within the immune cells. In some cases, the body will release of too many cytokines triggering a heightened immune response and excess inflammation which can lead to autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, and IBD.
This new technique, called Secretion-Enabled Cell Ranking and Enrichment (SECRE), sorts hundreds of millions of CRISPR edited cells and identifies key genetic regulators of cytokine secretion. How SECRE works is by trapping the cytokine on the surface of the cell, labelling it with magnetic nanoparticles, and then uses a high-throughput microfluidic sorting device to group cells based on their secretion patterns. This is a potential breakthrough for future autoimmune therapies as it identifies the genetic regulators of cytokine secretion in specific autoimmune conditions which can then be targeted and inhibited to provide the most effective treatment.
Researchers who discovered this technique found success with SECRE as a potential treatment for IBD. IBD is a long term health condition that is caused by chronic inflammation of the digestive track. IBD affects approximately seven million people worldwide and there is currently no cure for this disease, In order to validate SECRE, researches looked to identify cells producing interferon gamma, which is often elevated in cases of IBD, and use inhibitors on these cells to limit production. Scientists used the kinase inhibitor XMU-MP1 to treat mice with a form of collitis that mimics the cell secretion profile of humans with IBD. They found that this inhibitor worked effectively to treat the symptoms in mice.
This technique still has a while to go in development as it has to undergo extensive clinical trials and gain approval before it can be effectively used. However, this has the potential to provide effect therapies to treat prevalent conditions using molecular targeting.
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