MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS and rheumatoid arthritis patients could benefit from a new research discovery at Trinity College Dublin.
Scientists at the college have discovered that a particular type of white blood cell is a major cause of damage to tissues during onset and development of these autoimmune diseases.
The particular type of white blood cell involved – gamma delta T cells – were already known about and are naturally present in all of us but it had not been previously known that they play a key role in initiating or kick-starting the inflammatory process in these diseases.
“We all have these gamma T cells. In some people they become overactive and cause damage,” said TCD professor of experimental immunology Kingston Mills. Outlining the significance of the discovery by his research team, he said: “Our findings have considerably enhanced our understanding of the mechanisms which cause the cellular damage in auto-immune diseases, and should help in the design of more effective drug treatments.
“If you can block what is initiating the problem, you have a better chance of stopping it developing into a severe disease.”
Prof Mills said the discovery had been in a laboratory model. “It helps the understanding of the disease process rather than giving a cure for MS.” It can take 10 years from when one identifies a drug target to the development of a drug to treat it, he said, but in this case drugs were already in trials to block another molecule involved in the initiation of inflammation in auto-immune diseases.
The role of the gamma T cells discovered at TCD is the second part of this equation and, therefore, reinforced the evidence that these cells should be a good drug target, and made it likely that drugs would be developed in about half the normal 10-year timeframe.
Auto-immune and chronic inflammatory diseases, such as MS, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease affect 20 per cent of the population worldwide.
In Ireland one in 100 or 40,000 people have rheumatoid arthritis and one in 800 or 4,500 have MS. There are no cures for these diseases and treatment options focus on relieving pain and inflammation.
The findings of the research, led by Prof Mills at TCD's school of biochemistry and immunology and funded by Science Foundation Ireland and the Health Research Board, have just been published in the journal Immunity.