Brit scientist could be about to CURE multiple sclerosis and provide hope for millions
âA British scientist could have made one of the most important medical breakthroughs of recent years.â
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Dr Su Metcalfe and her team at LIFNano believe they have found the cure for the devastating condition, multiple sclerosis .
More than 2.3million people globally are affected by the debilitating condition and symptoms include blindness and muscle weakness.
Dr Metcalfe told the Cambridge News : âSome people get progressive MS, so go straight to the severe form of the disease, but the majority have a relapsing or remitting version,â she says. âIt can start from the age of 30, and thereâs no cure, so all you can do is suppress the immune response, but the drugs that do that have side effects, and you canât repair the brain. The cost of those drugs is very high, and in the UK there are a lot of people who donât get treated at all.â
Dr Metcalfe and her team have combined one of the bodyâs cleverest functions with some cutting-edge technology. The natural side of the equation is provided by a stem cell particle called a LIF. She was working at Cambridge Universityâs department of surgery when she made her big breakthrough.
Dr Metcalfe said: âI was looking to see what controls the immune response and stops it auto-attacking us,â she explains. âI discovered a small binary switch, controlled by a LIF, which regulates inside the immune cell itself. LIF is able to control the cell to ensure it doesnât attack your own body but then releases the attack when needed. âThat LIF, in addition to regulating and protecting us against attack, also plays a major role in keeping the brain and spinal cord healthy. In fact it plays a major role in tissue repair generally, turning on stem cells that are naturally occurring in the body, making it a natural regenerative medicine, but also plays a big part in repairing the brain when itâs been damaged. âSo I thought, this is fantastic. We can treat auto-immune disease, and weâve got something to treat MS, which attacks both the brain and the spinal cord. So you have a double whammy that can stop and reverse the auto-immunity, and also repair the damage caused in the brain.â
But the breakthrough wasn't over then, as the LIF could only survive outside the cell for 20 minutes before being broken down by the body, meaning there was not enough time to deploy it in a therapy. And this is where the technology, in the form of nano-particles, comes in.
Dr Metcalfe said: âThey are made from the same material as soluble stitches, so theyâre compatible with the body and they slowly dissolve,â says Su. âWe load the cargo of the LIF into those particles, which become the delivery device that slowly dissolve and deliver the LIF over five days.
"The nano-particle itself is a protective environment, and the enzymes that break it down canât access it. You can also decorate the surface of the particles with antibodies, so it becomes a homing device that can target specific parts of the brain, for example. So you get the right dose, in the right place, and at the right time.â
The particles themselves were developed at Yale University, which is listed as co-inventor with Dr Metcalfe on the IP. But LIFNano has the worldwide licence to deploy them, and Su believes we are on the verge of a step-change in medicine. Dr Metcalfe said: âNano-medicine is a new era, and big pharma has already entered this space to deliver drugs while trying to avoid the side effects. The quantum leap is to actually go into biologics and tap into the natural pathways of the body. âWeâre not using any drugs, weâre simply switching on the bodyâs own systems of self-tolerance and repair. There arenât any side effects because all weâre doing is tipping the balance. Auto-immunity happens when that balance has gone awry slightly, and we simply reset that. Once youâve done that, it becomes self-sustaining and you donât have to keep giving therapy, because the body has its balance back.â
LIFNano has already attracted two major funding awards, from drug firm Merck and the Governmentâs Innovate UK agency. Dr Metcalfe admits she is something of a novice when it comes to business, but has recruited cannily in the form of chairman Florian Kemmerich and ceo Oliver Jarry, both experienced operators in the pharma sector.
With the support of the Judge, the company hopes to attract more investment, with the aim of starting clinical trials in 2020. She said: âThe 2020 date is ambitious, but with the funding weâve got and the funding weâre hoping to raise, it should be possible. âWeâve got everything we need in place to make the nano-particles in a clinically compliant manner, itâs just a case of flicking the switch when we have the money. "Weâre looking at VCs and big pharma, because they have a strong interest in this area. Weâre doing all our pre-clinical work concurrently while bringing in the major funds the company needs to go forward in its own right.â
Immune cells have been a big part of Dr Metcalfe's career, and her passion for her subject is obvious. âI wanted to understand something that was so simple on one level but also so complex,â she says.
âThe immune cell is the only single cell in the body that is its own unity, so it functions alone. Itâs probably one of the most powerful cells in the body because it can kill you, and if you havenât got it you die because you havenât got it.â
And MS may just be the start for LIFNano. âMS is our key driver at the moment, but itâs going to be leading through to other major auto-immune disease areas,â she adds. âPsoriasis is high up on our list, and diabetes is another. Downstream there are all the dementias, because a LIF is a major health factor for the brain. So if we can get it into the brain we can start protecting against dementia."









