Breakthrough MS nano-therapy wins award

Nanotechnology could revolutionise treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in ground-breaking trials planned by a Cambridge scientist.

Dr Su Metcalfe, a University of Cambridge senior research associate based at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, has won a £150,000 award which will enable her team to proceed to pre-clinical trials.  The award is one of only five given out this year from major pharmaceutical company Merck Serono.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an incurable autoimmune disease that attacks the central nervous system. It commonly affects young adults and in the UK alone over 100,000 people have MS with 2,500 being diagnosed each year.

The disease causes damage to the nerve sheaths, or myelin, which normally insulate the electrical activity of nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord. Specific nerves become inflamed and lose function and this disrupts messages from the brain to parts of the body, resulting in early symptoms of MS, such as impaired vision.

The technology developed for treatment of MS by Dr Metcalfe uses tiny ‘smart’ nanoparticles that act as magic bullets to deliver powerful factors known to increase repair of damaged myelin. The key factor is "LIF", a stem cell protein.

Dr Metcalfe said: "Nanotechnology is now recognised as a key platform for healthcare. Our ‘smart’ technology allows us to target delivery of molecules able to repair myelin and also reduce inflammation. By using a nanoparticle platform where the safety in humans is already confirmed, a hugely important feature for rapid progress towards the clinic, we can now expect to move to clinical trials within three to five years."

The award will link a small team of experts including bioengineer Dr Tarek Fahmy of Yale University who prepares the smart nanoparticles, Professors David Baker and Gavin Giovannoni who lead preclinical and clinical trials in MS at Queen Mary's University of London, and Dr Anna Williams who works on progressive MS at the University of Edinburgh.


Notes

1.    One of only five awards made worldwide, and the first to a UK scientist, the $250,000 (£150,000) award from the Merck-Serono's "Grants for Multiple Sclerosis International" (GMSI) scheme will fund preclinical trials of Metcalfe's nano-therapeutic device that taps into the body's natural mechanisms for repair and avoids use of drugs.  

2.    This GMSI project exploits nanotechnology to harness the power of Leukaemia Inhibitory Factor (LIF), a potent stem cell cytokine able to (i) oppose inflammatory immunity, and (ii) promote myelin repair - both highly relevant to treatment of MS. LIF-loaded-nanoparticles (LIF-nano) can be specifically targeted to immune cells, or to neural precursor cells, where proof of concept of therapeutic benefits in animal models is well established.

3.    The GMSI award now allows LIF-nano to be evaluated in a series of preclinical trials where the safety in humans is already confirmed for the nano-formulation platform.

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For more information contact adrian.ient@addenbrookes.nhs.uk tel: 01223 274 433.
Communications Department, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0QQ

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