PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

New cell therapy a promising atherosclerosis treatment

2011-03-02
(Press-News.org) Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have shown in a new study on mice, that cell therapy can be used to reverse the effect of 'bad' LDL cholesterol and reduce the inflammation that leads to atherosclerosis. The new cell therapy, which is presented in the prestigious scientific journal Circulation, can open the way for new therapies for stroke and myocardial infarction if the results prove translatable to humans.

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammation of the blood vessels. Cholesterol is transported in the blood in particles called LDL ('bad' cholesterol) that can accumulate in the vessel walls. This triggers the body's immune system to react against LDL, which then cause inflammation in the vessels, and eventually thrombus formation. If such a thrombus forms in the coronary artery, the patient suffers a myocardial infarction; if it forms in the brain, a stroke can result.

The research group, under the direction of Professor Göran K Hansson at the Centre for Molecular Medicine, have developed a cell therapy that selectively dampens vascular inflammation induced by LDL. The therapy makes use of dendritic cells, which are characterized by a high degree of plasticity that renders them amenable to manipulation.

"With the appropriate treatment, dendritic cells can be made to inhibit rather than aggravate the inflammation around the LDL particles in the blood vessels," says Dr Andreas Hermansson, one of the researchers conducting the study. "A major advantage of this is that we can devise a treatment for vascular diseases that is highly specific."

The mouse studies now presented in Circulation have demonstrated substantial protective effects of the treatment, with a reduction of the atherosclerosis process of up around 70 percent. Last year, the researchers published results showing that antibodies recognizing the receptors that drive the immune reaction have protective effects, and now the same group is presenting a cell therapy that is at least as efficacious. It is hoped that this will pave the way for a completely new generation of selective anti-inflammatory therapies for cardiovascular disease.

"Treatments of atherosclerosis have traditionally targeted blood lipids, but a large proportion of treated patients still suffer life-threatening infarctions and stroke," says Professor Hansson. "We're now looking at the possibility of getting to the root of the problem and re-set, so to speak, the immune system's reaction to LDL, since it often has devastating consequences."

INFORMATION:

The Centre for Molecular Medicine is a collaboration between Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital. The present research has been financed with grants from the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, Vinnova (the Swedish governmental agency for innovation systems), the Swedish Heart and Lung Foundation, the Stockholm County Council and the EU Seventh Framework Programme. A patent application has also been submitted.

Publication: "Immunotherapy with tolerogenic apolipoprotein B-100 loaded dendritic cells attenuates atherosclerosis in hypercholesterolemic mice", Andreas Hermansson, Daniel Johansson, Daniel F.J. Ketelhuth, John Andersson, Xinghua Zhou & Göran K. Hansson, Circulation, 28 February 2011; 123; 1083-1091.

Journal website: http://circ.ahajournals.org/

For further information, please contact:

Professor Göran K Hansson
Tel: +46 (0)8-517 762 22
Mobile: +46 (0)70-878 87 38
Email: goran.hansson@ki.se

Dr Andreas Hermansson, PhD
Tel: +46 (0)8-517 764 19
Mobile: +46 (0)70-204 15 89
Email: Andreas.hermansson@ki.se

Download photos and contact the Press Office: ki.se/pressroom

Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's leading medical universities. It accounts for over 40 per cent of the medical academic research conducted in Sweden and offers the country's broadest range of education in medicine and health sciences. Since 1901 the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has selected the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New non-surgical autopsy technique set to revolutionize post-mortem practice

2011-03-02
A new non-surgical post-mortem technique that has the potential to revolutionise the way autopsies are conducted around the world has been pioneered by forensic pathologists and radiologists at the University of Leicester in collaboration with the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. The technique developed by a team in the East Midlands Forensic Pathology Unit, at the University of Leicester, has been published today (1 March) in International Journal of Legal Medicine. This paper presents the development of the methodology and protocol for this technique from ...

Improved method developed to locate ships in storms

Improved method developed to locate ships in storms
2011-03-02
There are already systems that detect ships at sea, but a group of engineers from the UAH, led by the researcher Raúl Vicen, has introduced a new development, involving "the use of artificial intelligence techniques and improvements in the templates used to select input data". The team has come up with a new detection method "that outperforms the one that has generally been used until now, as well as offering the advantages of low computational costs, and which can also be used in real time". The new system, the details of which are published in the journal IET Radar, ...

Queen's University scientists behind safer drinking water in US

Queens University scientists behind safer drinking water in US
2011-03-02
Pioneering technology by scientists at Queen's University Belfast, which is transforming the lives of millions of people in Asia, is now being used to create safer drinking water in the United States. The award-winning system – Subterranean Arsenic Removal – removes arsenic from groundwater without using chemicals. It was developed by a team of European and Indian engineers led by Dr Bhaskar Sen Gupta in Queen's University School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering. The technology, based on the principle of oxidation and filtration processes, is already ...

Stem cell study could aid motor neurone disease research

2011-03-02
Scientists have discovered a new way to generate human motor nerve cells in a development that will help research into motor neurone disease. A team from the Universities of Edinburgh, Cambridge and Cardiff has created a range of motor neurons – nerves cells that send messages from the brain and spine to other parts of the body – from human embryonic stem cells in the laboratory. It is the first time that researchers have been able to generate a variety of human motor neurons, which differ in their make-up and display properties depending on where they are located in ...

March Madness: Statisticians quantify entry biases

March Madness: Statisticians quantify entry biases
2011-03-02
By examining historical data, statisticians in the College of Science at Virginia Tech have quantified biases that play a role in granting Division I at-large basketball teams inclusion in the NCAA March Madness Tournament. Assistant professors Leanna House and Scotland Leman found that in addition to the standard Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) used by the 10-member selection committee, biases such as the team's marquee and the strength of its schedule are also factors. "We wanted to quantify how much bias there is for bubble teams," Leman said. So-named "bubble teams" ...

Stronger than steel, novel metals are moldable as plastic

Stronger than steel, novel metals are moldable as plastic
2011-03-02
New Haven, Conn.—Imagine a material that's stronger than steel, but just as versatile as plastic, able to take on a seemingly endless variety of forms. For decades, materials scientists have been trying to come up with just such an ideal substance, one that could be molded into complex shapes with the same ease and low expense as plastic but without sacrificing the strength and durability of metal. Now a team led by Jan Schroers, a materials scientist at Yale University, has shown that some recently developed bulk metallic glasses (BMGs)—metal alloys that have randomly ...

Scientists reveal new insights into tendon injury

2011-03-02
Scientists have discovered how tendons – the fibrous tissue that connects muscle to bone – become damaged through injury or the ageing process in what could lead to new treatments for people with tendon problems. The University of Manchester team, working with colleagues at Glasgow University, have been investigating 'adhesions', which are a build up of unwanted fibrous tissue on internal organs that have been damaged as a result of surgery or injury. Adhesions cause organs to stick together and are extremely painful and distressing for patients, who often have to undergo ...

6 different pathways to adulthood

2011-03-02
Only in very few life phases do individuals face as many life transitions in such a short time as young adults at the age of 19-30. The transition from adolescence to adulthood is characterised by frequent changes in status or social roles, such as leaving the parental home, starting a career, entering into working life, forming a partnership and becoming a parent. Assuming civic and social responsibility is also an integral part of the lives of young adults at this particular life phase. Professor Katariina Salmela-Aro's research team has investigated the transition ...

Solving the riddle of nature's perfect spring

2011-03-02
Scientists have unravelled the shape of the protein that gives human tissues their elastic properties in what could lead to the development of new synthetic elastic polymers. University of Manchester researchers, working with colleagues in Australia and the United States, used state-of-the-art techniques to reveal the structure of tropoelastin, the main component of elastin. Elastin allows tissues in humans and other mammals to stretch, for example when the lungs expand and contract for respiration or when arteries widen and narrow over the course of a billion heart ...

New 'frozen smoke' may improve robotic surgery, energy storage

New frozen smoke may improve robotic surgery, energy storage
2011-03-02
A spongy substance that could be mistaken for packing material has the nanotechnology world buzzing. University of Central Florida Associate Professor Lei Zhai and postdoctoral associate Jianhua Zou have engineered the world's lightest carbon material in such a way that it could be used to detect pollutants and toxic substances, improve robotic surgery techniques and store energy more efficiently. The new material belongs to the family of the lightest solid, also known by its technical name of aerogel or its common nickname of "frozen smoke." Zhai's team worked with ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Toxic metals linked to impaired growth in infants in Guatemala

Being consistently physically active in adulthood linked to 30–40% lower risk of death

Nerve pain drug gabapentin linked to increased dementia, cognitive impairment risks

Children’s social care involvement common to nearly third of UK mums who died during perinatal period

‘Support, not judgement’: Study explores links between children’s social care involvement and maternal deaths

Ethnic minority and poorer children more likely to die in intensive care

Major progress in fertility preservation after treatment for cancer of the lymphatic system

Fewer complications after additional ultrasound in pregnant women who feel less fetal movement

Environmental impact of common pesticides seriously underestimated

The Milky Way could be teeming with more satellite galaxies than previously thought

New study reveals surprising reproductive secrets of a cricket-hunting parasitoid fly

Media Tip Sheet: Symposia at ESA2025

NSF CAREER Award will power UVA engineer’s research to improve drug purification

Tiny parasitoid flies show how early-life competition shapes adult success

New coating for glass promises energy-saving windows

Green spaces boost children’s cognitive skills and strengthen family well-being

Ancient trees dying faster than expected in Eastern Oregon

Study findings help hone precision of proven CVD risk tool

Most patients with advanced melanoma who received pre-surgical immunotherapy remain alive and disease free four years later

Introducing BioEmu: A generative AI Model that enables high-speed and accurate prediction of protein structural ensembles

Replacing mutated microglia with healthy microglia halts progression of genetic neurological disease in mice and humans

New research shows how tropical plants manage rival insect tenants by giving them separate ‘flats’

Condo-style living helps keep the peace inside these ant plants

Climate change action could dramatically limit rising UK heatwave deaths

Annual heat-related deaths projected to increase significantly due to climate and population change

Researchers discover new way cells protect themselves from damage

Rivers choose their path based on erosion — a discovery that could transform flood planning and restoration

New discovery reveals dopamine operates with surgical precision, not as a broad signal

New AI tool gives a helping hand to x ray diagnosis

New Leicester study reveals hidden heart risks in women with Type 2 Diabetes

[Press-News.org] New cell therapy a promising atherosclerosis treatment