this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2023
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Researchers from Pritzker Molecular Engineering, under the guidance of Prof. Jeffrey Hubbell, demonstrated that their compound can eliminate the autoimmune response linked to multiple sclerosis. Researchers at the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) have developed

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[–] [email protected] 371 points 1 year ago (26 children)

This article is garbage but I'm a molecular biologist and the publication they're talking about is really neat.

The "ELI5 to the point of maybe reducing out the truth" way to explain it is that the researchers can add "flags" to proteins associated with immune responses that make cells pick them up and examine them. This is shown to work for allergins (so say, add a flag to peanut protein and the cells can look at it more closely, go "oh nvm this is fine" and stop freaking out about peanuts) as well as autoimmune diseases (where cells mistake other cells from the same body as potential threats).

It's not nearly to a treatment stage, but tbh this is one of the more exciting approaches I've seen, and I do similar research and thus read a lot of papers like this.

There's a lot of evidence that we are entering a biological "golden age" and we will discover a ton of amazing things very soon. It's worrysome that we still have to deal with instability in other parts of life (climate change, wealth inequality, political polarization) that might slow down the process of turning these discoveries into actual treatments we can use to make lives better...

Still, don't doubt everything you read! A lot of cool stuff is coming, the trick is getting it past the red tape

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Wealth inequality won't stop these discoveries making people's lives better, it will just ensure that the 1% live forever in perfect health and the 99% get to watch their kids and grandkids get sicker as the environment, living standards and employment situation deteriorate, until automation gets to a point where the working class are no longer required and can be safely left to starve or killed off.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

Americans invest milions in healh evolution and only 1% of the americans can use it. On the other hand every other country with a free heath care will provide the solution discovered by americans for free to their people. Americans dying to keep the world alive. This is really fucked up.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Red tape" eh? Shit if I had MS or AIDS I'd get some red contact lenses and some fake white fur, just don't ask where the rat tail is attached, and be in for clinical trials in the AM. "I'm a rat it's fine. I mean squeek squeek."

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Every time I see articles like this I'm very happy for everyone having those horribly debilitating and deadly autoimmune diseases.

Then with some shame I hope it might maybe one day also cure my slightly debilitating non deadly simple allergies one day.

Yay it seems it might be good for both!

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[–] [email protected] 208 points 1 year ago (14 children)

I've been following cures like this for years. There are three candidates in phase 2 trials right now that appear to work, they're mostly figuring out the doses needed and there's a big question on how long they last. Hopefully permanent but we don't know for sure.

Diabetics have just been so beaten down by this whole thing. I was told the cure was 10 years away 40 years ago. Even if the technology described here works we could be another 15 years before we see it. Researchers said it could be here as soon as 5 years, which is true if unrealistically optimistic. I believe the cure is coming but I'm not holding my breath until I'm actually in front of a doctor about to receive the cure whatever it happens to be.

[–] [email protected] 110 points 1 year ago (5 children)

It's a clash between scientists needing to be optimistic about their findings to maintain funding and real people needing it asap. We need to fund more medical research outside of for-profit corporations and increasingly expensive academia

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Imagine if there was a global fund for disease cures that all the industrialized nations poured their money and resources into.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)

If you're talking about The Global Fund, they only attack very specific diseases, mostly eradicated in industrialized nations but persist due to poverty (like malaria).

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (13 children)

It’s like all the revolutionary battery technologies, computer storage technologies, fusion, cure for cancer, anything with graphene in it, cure for immune diseases and all that. People just love to write clickbait articles about this stuff.

Developing these ideas in the lab takes decades, and turning those ideas into actual products takes even more time. When you see articles about these topics, you can be pretty sure you’ll never hear about it again.

Edit: Just to be clear: technology is going forward all the time, but news articles tend to fucus on things that are interesting or fascianting, and extrapolate from there. The technologies that actually end up becoming widespread might not be interesting enough to write about.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I was thinking of forwarding this to a friend with type 1 and remember the tale of misery from the last one I sent. Exactly what you said. She’s 38. Don’t get her hopes up.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

A few people asked for more information about these trials that I referred to above. In theory if you can cure one autoimmune disease you should be able to use the same method to cure any of them. Obviously we don't know that for certain and diseases like Diabetes has the extra step of inducing the growth of new beta cells to produce insulin (more on that below)

That said, the three trials I referred to are Celiac specific. I have this and T1D so those are the two I've been following most closely, but I definitely dive into news on ms or any of the other autoimmune diseases.

Note: all of these entered phase 2 this year. They are in the EARLY EARLY stages of that phase, so we should see results in 2025/26 for these. I am also ignoring any trial not in phase 2. Also note that several diabetes and ms cures are essentially variants of these, and many of them are running in parallel.

KAN-101: This is from Anokion and happens to have a trial in my area, hence it's the one I know the most about. This one works by targetting the liver where the relevant immune cells are produced. Even in their phase 1 trial they found that patients had a dose dependent reduction in IL-1 (a cytokine that your body releases in the presence of gluten if you're celiac). As with all these trials they need to determine what dose is needed to be a full cure and is it permanent?

TAK-101: This is an MS cure that was adapted for celiac disease, originally developed by ImmunisanT. They also have several other variants of this one, including T1D. Unfortunately their website seems to be down. Takeda is handling the clinical trials here and last I heard they're waiting for the celiac results before pushing forward with the others, but they expect them to move quickly at that point. Here's a video by one of the researchers behind this.

TPM502: I know the least about this one, it's from Topas Therapeutics and they recently announced the start of phase 2 trials in Finland, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden. [more]

I should emphasize that there is no guarantee any of these treatments will work and everyone is tired of the latest "breathrough" that we never hear about again. Some of the trails above had to go back to the drawing board after hitting phase 2, TAK-101 is a newer generation of "Nexxvax" which if you google that you'll find articles about its cancellation.

Then Diabetes has the problem of beta cells needing to be restored or replaced. That's looking feasible either by transplanting adult cells, stimulating the growth of new ones using stem cells or a similar concept. One proposal hides the beta cells from your immune system entirely inside a scaffold. That last one is more of a new treatment than a cure, but it definitely beats what we have now.

The good news is that work IS being done in this area, progress is being made, and I know at least with KAN-101 they have demonstrated it showing results. The cure is coming. Even if most or all of these trails fails the fact that they've seen the results that they have is still really good news.

Again, it's coming. It's just not in a hurry.

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[–] [email protected] 63 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Our immune systems are both one of the most fascinating things about us and for those with autoimmune issues like myself, the most annoying. Always good to see articles like this and I'm glad this focused on the actual science.

I'd love to sign up for the trial if they ever test it for vitiligo. There are wayyy more serious autoimmune issues that can and should be tested first for those truly suffering. Mine is just "hey look at weird color boy".

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My wife has MS. And even though we are of course far from being at a point where the disease will be cured, articles like this give hope.

There are a lot of smart people who are dealing with the topic. Hopefully they can get something solid done soon!

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I will click on this headline when the link is to Nature or Scientific American or the Mayo Clinic. Thank you very much.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The article has the link to the original paper published in Nature Biomedical engineering at the bottom.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-023-01086-2

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Thanks!

Hm, well the full paper is behind a subscription wall but the abstract sounds much more modest:

Our findings show that pGal–antigen therapy invokes mechanisms of immune tolerance to resolve antigen-specific inflammatory T-cell responses and suggest that the therapy may be applicable across autoimmune diseases.

“May be applicable” —> “can completely reverse” ???

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago (31 children)

Unpopular opinion: Anyone who refused the COVID vaccine should be banned from getting this.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago (21 children)

Honestly asking, why even bring this up? What does this have to do with the topic of the post?

All you do is start an argument and divert away from the topic that was supposed to be discussed.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

People are saying it causes 5g.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Can I get it, I want strong signal at all times.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Well it wouldn't grow my colon back but I'll take what I can get!

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

This just got me and I needed a good laugh so thank you.

Going on my seventht day of COVID, getting worse, and my scumbag immune system has decided this isn't nearly as interesting as the large intestine and everything south of it that it took a few years back.

C'mon, little help here?!

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's tough to see promising treatments and cures for Type 1. There have been huge inroads for treatment but a cure always seems just around the corner. Here's to hope for all the Type 1's and thank you for all the people looking to find that cure.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago

The research is interesting, but I don't appreciate the bullshit clickbait headline.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago

I have MS, I'll go wild once I hear it's approved. Until then I'll save my energy.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I get to find out if I have ulcerative colitis or Crohns in a few days. This gives me hope that even if I have one of them, I won't have to take meds for the rest of my life, or worse, have parts of me removed.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

I just got slapped with an auto immune problem with my thyroid. It's inflamed and will never go back to normal. So far I only have a fat neck and I'm stable but at any moment I might develop hypothyroidism because of this. I can't wait for this to work.

Edit: having said that... the source of this post has been known for clickbait bullshit articles so maybe I shouldn't hold my breath :(

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The source of this post might be. But the study is solid as far as I can see. It was published in Nature Biomedical Engineering last week.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-023-01086-2

As phase I clinical trials are underway, we'll see how far this can get. But sure, don't expect too much, then you won't be disappointed. Let's hope it can really help people.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

Finally i can stop shitting my pants

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes but can we make a boatload of money off it?

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

My wife has Type 1 diabetes and I have UC.

This would be a god-send, but Im not gonna hold my breath. Good news is always a lie.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wonder what the implications for transplant recipients are.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

That's the holy grail for this type of research. Autoimmune cures are seen as a stepping stone for that

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is extremely promising. If this "reverse vaccine" is brought to market and holds up in effectiveness, it could usher in a new era of health, this could spell the end of autoimmune disorders, allergies, and other negative immune responses.

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