18
December
The new nanomedicine targeted therapy system of Tongji Hospital is expected to reduce the side effects of rheumatoid drug therapy
How to further improve the efficacy of rheumatoid arthritis treatment and increase the tissue targeting of therapeutic drugs? The team of Professor Dong Lingli, Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Tongji Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Professor Liu Bo, School of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, designed and synthesized a multi-functional platinum-tellurium nanodrug that can be targeted to the inflammation of the joint, combined with photothermal regulation therapy, and explored its anti-inflammatory therapeutic effect and mechanism in cell and disease animal models. The relevant research results have recently been published in the internationally renowned journal of Chemical Engineering.
Rheumatoid joint is a common rheumatic disease mainly characterized by synovial inflammation, hyperplasia, cartilage and bone destruction. The global prevalence rate is about 0.5-1.0%, and the total number of patients in China has more than 10 million. The disease can cause severe joint deformity and has a high disability rate, which brings huge burden to patients, families and society.
At present, the treatment methods mainly include traditional anti-rheumatic drugs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, glucocorticoids, etc., but there are still two major application bottlenecks. First, the clinical treatment effect is not ideal, the effective rate of traditional drugs is only 30% to 40%, and the drug cycle is long, and the patient's disease is easy to relapse; Second, if the drug is used improperly in the long course of treatment, it may damage the liver and kidney function of patients. The key lies in the limited target enrichment rate and non-targeted release of related drugs in vivo.
Animal experiments showed that the multifunctional platinum-tellurium nanodrugs synthesized in this study could significantly accumulate locally in the inflammatory joints and accurately clear the affected local inflammatory macrophages. First, the surface modification of hyaluronic acid enables the nanomaterials to "actively target" the inflammation joint. Secondly, reactive oxygen species is a key factor in promoting the onset of rheumatoid arthritis. This drug has good reactive oxygen scavenging effect and photothermal conversion performance, and can induce the death of inflammatory macrophages under near-infrared light irradiation, reducing the level of inflammation. Multi-dimensional evidence, such as imaging, inflammatory factor levels and joint pathology, showed that the novel nanomedical combination treatment system designed by the project team could effectively alleviate the symptoms of arthritis in mice.In addition, further safety studies also indicated that the nanomedical treatment did not cause significant pathological changes in other important tissues and organs of the model animals, nor did it induce damage to the blood system and liver and kidney function of mice.
The results of the study showed that the multifunctional platinum-tellurium nanodrugs modified by hyaluronic acid could accurately target the inflammatory joints, and the combination of photothermal therapy and active oxygen scavenging had good anti-inflammatory effects, which could significantly alleviate the symptoms of arthritis, and showed good safety during treatment, providing a new idea for the targeted therapy of rheumatoid arthritis.
At present, the research team is still conducting new exploration in the field of nanomedicine therapy for rheumatoid arthritis, trying to build a variety of targeted delivery schemes and combine different treatment modalities. It is expected that after improving the production process and repeatedly proving the effectiveness and safety of nanomedicine, relevant clinical trials will be carried out to realize the clinical transformation of basic research and bring more possibilities for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
