A new system sends medication directly to the spleen where certain immune cells cause the disease known as lupus, or Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.
Lupus is a debilitating autoimmune disease characterized by uncontrolled disease activity, frequent flares, long-term immunosuppression, increasing infection rates, cumulative organ damage and decreased quality of life.
The spleen has often been called the security guard of the bloodstream, filtering out old or damaged blood cells while housing millions of white blood cells, or lymphocytes, that carry out immune system functions. It is because the spleen harbors these cells it plays a critical role in how lupus develops.
The system will use tiny fat-based particles, or lipid nanoparticles, modified with mannose, a simple sugar, to carry medicine directly to the spleen and to target B cells, plasmacytoid dendritic cells and macrophages, which are critical immune cells thought to drive the disease. The use of mannose facilitates the binding to mannose receptors, ensuring precise delivery to these splenic immune cells.
The primary aim is not only to advance treatment strategies for lupus but also to deepen an understanding of lupus pathogenesis. Significantly, this innovation could pave the way for treating lupus by targeting organ-specific molecular pathways, recognizing that the same drug target may have opposing roles in different organs, such as the spleen versus end-organs like the kidney, heart, or central nervous system.
