Nanotech strategy shows promise for treating autoimmune disease In a Scripps Research study, a nanoparticle treatment cured' mice that had a genetic arthritis condition.
December 01, 2022
LA JOLLA, CA Scientists at Scripps Research have reported success in initial tests of a new, nanotech-based strategy against autoimmune diseases.
The scientists, who reported their results on November 23, 2022, in the journal ACS Nano, engineered cell-like nanoparticles that target only the immune cells driving an autoimmune reaction, leaving the rest of the immune system intact and healthy. The nanoparticles greatly delayed, and in some animals even prevented, severe disease in a mouse model of arthritis.
The potential advantage of this approach is that it would enable safe, long-term treatment for autoimmune diseases where the immune system attacks its own tissues or organs using a method that won't cause broad immune suppression, as current treatments do, says study senior author James Paulson, PhD, Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Chair of Chemistry in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Scripps Research.
Autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis are caused when the immune system mistakenly attacks a person's own tissues or organs. These illnesses affect an estimated 10 million people in the U.S. alone. Treatments are available and can be effective for many patients, but they tend to suppress the immune system indiscriminately, creating an enhanced susceptibility to infections and cancers among other side effects.
Paulson and his team have taken an approach that targets the immune system more narrowly. Many autoimmune diseases are triggered or driven by immune attacks on just one protein in the patient's body, known as a self-antigen. The idea underlying the nanoparticle strategy is to eliminate or deactivate only the immune cells that attack that self-antigen an approach that could be at least as effective as broad immune suppression, without the side effects. Autoimmune diseases that are dominated by immune responses to a single self-antigen include some forms of arthritis, the skin blister disease known as pemphigus and the thyroid ailment Graves' disease.
The researchers, including first author Katarzyna Brzezicka, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate in the Paulson lab, research assistant Britni Arlian, and other lab members, designed nanoparticles that could deactivate two types of immune cells: B cells and T cells. On its surface, each nanoparticle bore copies of a target self-antigen, plus a sugar-related molecule that can bind to a special off switch receptor on B cells called CD22. B cells, which make antibodies and are specific to different antigens, will effectively shut themselves off if they encounter both the particular antigen they target and the binding partner of CD22 at the same time.
Each nanoparticle also was laced with a powerful compound called rapamycin to stimulate the production of immune cells called regulatory T cells. Treg cells, as they're also known, are responsible for suppressing other T cells needed to generate an autoimmune attack. The overall aim of the study was to effectively knock out only the B and T cells that recognize the self-antigen, leaving the rest of the B- and T-cell populations intact.
The researchers first demonstrated that their nanoparticle-based strategy could tolerize the mouse immune system to a chicken protein, ovalbumin, that would otherwise trigger a strong response. Next, they tested the strategy in a widely used mouse model of arthritis, in which the mouse immune system is genetically predisposed to attack a self-antigen called GPI. The scientists showed that treatment of the mice with GPI-tolerizing nanoparticles at the age of three weeks greatly delayed the development of arthritis signs that would normally appear a week or two later. In fact, about a third of the mice remained arthritis-free for the maximum follow-up period of 300 days. Tests confirmed that the treatment dramatically reduced the mice's production of anti-GPI antibodies, and at the same time boosted their Treg populations.
Paulson says his team plans to follow up these highly promising results with further optimization of the nanoparticle strategy.
We were able to cure' a third of these animals in this early demonstration, and I think theres the potential to combine our nanoparticles with other immune modulator treatments to make it even more effective, Paulson says. So that will our next step as well as demonstrating our technology against other autoimmune diseases caused by unwanted immune responses to a self-antigen.
Suppression of Autoimmune Rheumatoid Arthritis with Hybrid Nanoparticles That Induce B and T Cell Tolerance to Self-Antigen was co-authored by Katarzyna Brzezicka, Britni Arlian, Shengyang Wang, Merissa Olmer, Martin Lotz, and James Paulson, all of Scripps Research.
This work was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health (R01AI050143, R01AI132790).
Autoimmune Diseases Immunology & Microbiology Paulson, James
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
06/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
06/04/2026
From high school sports all the way up to the major leagues, building high-quali...
06/04/2026
Quickplay, an AI company for the media and entertainment industry, has been accepted into the Advanced tier of the TwelveLabs Ecosystem Partner Program. Quickpl...
06/04/2026
Grass Valley has announced the Future Playmakers Program, a global initiative to...
06/04/2026
El l der de operaciones impulsa la producci n en estudio mientras encuentra insp...
06/04/2026
The ops leader helps lead the charge in studio for the Spanish-language broadcas...
06/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
06/04/2026
The National Hockey League (NHL), in partnership with Verizon and the New Jersey Devils, today announced the opening of the NHL Innovation Lab powered by Verizo...
06/04/2026
Rock League, a new professional curling league, has announced that ESPN+ will stream its inaugural 2026 season for fans in the United States. The first Rock Lea...
06/04/2026
Advanced Systems Group has announced the appointment of Andrea (Andy) Cummis as Vice President of Systems Design and Engineering. In this role, she will lead de...
06/04/2026
Backed by Bolt Ventures, the venture brings Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat, and...
06/04/2026
With this environment we can start that collaboration even earlier because we ca...
06/04/2026
Like the immortal lives of vampires, some stories never really end. That's t...
06/04/2026
As podcasting continues to evolve, growth increasingly means building beyond aud...
06/04/2026
Multiband dynamics plug-in enhanced
California-based developer FSK Audio have released a significant update for their innovative multiband dynamics processo...
06/04/2026
Share official & user-created full-rig presets
IK Multimedia's latest TONEX update makes it possible for users of the popular amp and effects modelling ...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Dalet Showcases Dalia Agentic AI and End-to-End Media Workflows at NAB Show 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Dalet, a leading technology and...
06/04/2026
OpenDrives Shows Off Sports Expertise in Sports Business Hub located in NAB Show...
06/04/2026
Proton to Demonstrate 3D Application at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Yet further creative potential unleashed through innovation in ...
06/04/2026
Autoscript Highlights Voice-Driven Prompting and PTZ Solutions at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Experience Autoscript Voice, PTZ prom...
06/04/2026
Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its LogServer suite at NAB Sho...
06/04/2026
Wayne, N.J., April 6th, 2026 Phantom High-Speed announces the release of PCC 4...
06/04/2026
April 6th, 2026
TRIBECA STUDIOS AND LILLY ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF INAUGURAL VITAL...
06/04/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Expands Kids Entertainment Lineup With Playground App ...
05/04/2026
Tackles all reported bugs!
SoundBridge have just announced the launch of a new update that introduces a couple of minor changes to their remote collaboratio...
04/04/2026
The University of Arizona's Men's Basketball team has only loss twice th...
04/04/2026
1080p HDR arrives, a new generation of storytelling tools takes center stage, an...
04/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
04/04/2026
Faster, cleaner and more intuitive than ever
The control software for Flock Audio's digitally controlled patchbay systems has just been treated to an up...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
DHD Introduces AI-Based Audio Noise Reduction to XD3 IP Core
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
The accompanying image shows the rear panel of the ...
04/04/2026
Macnica Redefines ST 2110 Flexibility with Two Speeds on One Card
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
New for NAB Show 2026, MEP100 SmartNIC now sup...
04/04/2026
Unified Media Workflows for Story-Centric Production
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
Framelight X unifies field capture, editing and publishing ...
03/04/2026
Michigan's Fab Five will reunite for an alternate presentation of the Mich...
03/04/2026
Avid will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (April 18-22, Booth N2226, Las Vegas Convention Center), demonstrating its Content Core platform and new AI-driven workflow c...
03/04/2026
Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has announced the appointment of Nick Barthee as Chief Operating Officer.
The announcement follows MRMC's transition fro...
03/04/2026
Interra Systems has announced that Elite Media Technologies has selected its BATON file-based QC solution for media workflows. Elite Media Technologies speciali...
03/04/2026
Ateme has announced that Moldtelecom has deployed Ateme technologies across its streaming workflow, covering encoding, delivery, operations, and analytics.
Mol...
03/04/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate Framelight X, its content management platform, at NAB Show 2026. The platform connects capture, ingest, editing, and publishing in...
03/04/2026
Encompass Digital Media and Techex have announced a cloud-native Master Control ...
Nanotech strategy shows promise for treating autoimmune disease In a Scripps Research study, a nanoparticle treatment cured' mice that had a genetic arthritis condition.
