Researchers recently developed a new approach using protein-based nanoparticles that can help with lung inflammation treatment.
As specified in the Phys.org report, the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the devastating effect of acute lung inflammation or ALI, which is part of the acute respiratory distress syndrome or ARDS, that's the dominant reason for death in the virus.
A possibly new route to both the diagnosis and treatment of ARDS is coming from examining how neutrophils, the white blood cells accountable for detecting and taking out hazardous particles in the body, differentiate the materials to uptake by the surface structure of materials, and favor particles' uptake that showcase "protein clumping," a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania said.
23 Protein-Based Nanoparticles Studied
In their study published in Nature Nanotechnology, researchers studied how neutrophils can distinguish between microbes to be killed and other compounds to the bloodstream like cholesterol particles.
The researchers examined a library containing 23 different protein-based nanoparticles in mice with ALI, which showed a set of rules that forecast uptake by neutrophils.
Essentially, neutrophils do not take up proportioned, inflexible particles like viruses, although they do take up particles that showcase "protein clumping," which the study investigators call nanoparticles with agglutinated protein or NAPs.
According to the study's lead author Jacob Myerson, Ph.D., they want to use the existing function of neutrophils that's identifying and eliminating invaders to inform how to design a "Trojan horse nanoparticle" that is overactive neutrophils will eventually intake and provide treatment to ease ALI and ARDS.
'Trojan Horse' Delivery System
Myerson, also a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, added that to develop this Trojan horse delivery system, though, there is a need to determine how neutrophils identify which particular particles are in the blood to take up, a similar ScienceDaily report specified.
Both ARDS and ALI are life-threatening respiratory failure forms with high morbidity and mortality rates. Before the COVID-19 crisis, there were around 190,000 annual cases of ARDS in the United States and 75,000 deaths, with the ARDS resulting from pneumonia, trauma, and sepsis.
Nevertheless, COVID-19 has increased ARDS occurrences into the millions. When ARDDS or ALI takes place, the air sacs of the lungs recruit neutrophils to the lungs to eliminate circulating bacteria.
Such a process causes neutrophils to release compounds that further aggravate lung injury and impair the air sacs, so patients develop low blood oxygen levels.
Nanoparticles for Therapeutics and Immunotherapy
Unfortunately, despite the severity of the said conditions, there is no effective medicine to control such illnesses, and treatment is currently focusing on supporting patients while the lungs are naturally but slowly healing.
To deal with ARDS and other medical issues, researchers have been utilizing nanoparticles to concentrate drugs in injured, diseased organs. Such nanoparticles are being used as well for gene therapeutics and immunotherapy.
The study investigators noted that developing viable treatments for ALI and ARDS using nanoparticles to deliver treatments through neutrophils is a long way off. This study represents a substantial step in understanding the immune system's condition and function.
Related information about nanoparticles is shown on Matt Miller's YouTube video below:
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