Synthetic antibodies will save patients with autoimmune diseases
The results of ten years of work by scientists at Rockefeller University (New York), working under the leadership of Jeffrey Ravetch, give a new birth to an old unreliable method of treating various autoimmune diseases. The traditional remedy – immunoglobulins for intravenous administration – is a mixture of specific antibodies isolated from the blood plasma of thousands of healthy donors. With varying degrees of effectiveness, immunoglobulins are used to treat systemic lupus erythematosus, arthritis, asthma and other autoimmune pathologies. The results of the new study indicate that a detailed understanding of the molecular mechanisms of the therapeutic effect of the drug allows you to create much more effective variants of it.
The authors were interested in the paradox of the action of immunoglobulins during intravenous administration. The fact is that class G immunoglobulins (IgG) are both antibodies that trigger autoimmune diseases and provide anti-inflammatory properties of a drug made from the plasma of healthy donors.
In 2006, scientists found that this apparent contradiction is due to a carbohydrate molecule – sialic acid, located at the terminal site of some IgG (in the diagram, its molecules are depicted as four red balls).
The presence of sialic acid provides anti-inflammatory properties of immunoglobulins, and in its absence, IgG molecules exhibit a pro-inflammatory effect.
Details can be found, for example, in the article A sugar switch for anti-inflammatory antibodies // Nature Biotechnology – 24, 1230-1231 (2006).
Deciphering the molecular basis of this contradiction formed the basis for the creation of a new strategy for the creation of drugs with the properties of anti-inflammatory immunoglobulins. Together with specialists from the University of Hampshire and the Scripps Research Institute, the authors synthesized a sialized form of IgG, the administration of which to mice with autoimmune arthritis was almost 30 times more effective than traditional intravenous immunoglobulins.
Rockefeller University has issued a license for the developed technology to the biotechnology company Centaurus Pharmaceuticals, whose specialists are currently working on creating a drug suitable for clinical trials. The developers are confident that the new approach to treatment will significantly improve the quality of life of patients with various autoimmune diseases that cannot be treated with currently available doses of immunoglobulins from donated blood.
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of ScienceDaily 04.05.2008