CALLING ON ALPACAS, NOT DRUGS, TO TAMP DOWN CHRONIC INFLAMMATION

Science has shown that chronic inflammation underlies a range of human conditions from arthritis and gout to age-related degeneration and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Now researchers at universities in Germany and Brazil think the solution to inflammation may lie with alpacas, the wooly critters that look like llamas, only smaller.

The group was studying something called ASC specks inside cells. The specks are a cell’s alarm system, calling in molecules that attack pathogens and other invaders.

ASC specks can be activated by a range of irritations from chronically poor diet to unrelenting stress to chemicals that have entered the body through the lungs or digestive system.

Responding to the specks’ alarm, molecules agglomerate and eventually pop the cell’s membrane from the inside. The cell then dumps its contents into surrounding tissues.

Among the dumped contents are the ASC specks, which the tissues recognize as a cry for help. That brings a systemic immune response to the rescue, which comes in the form of inflammation around the site to contain the damage and keep it from spreading. 

Over time, that systemic inflammation can become chronic and cause a range of ailments. 

Alpacas, which are raised by the millions in South America, are among only a few animals that have compounds, known as nanobodies, that break this cycle of chronic inflammation.

The researchers triggered inflammation in alpacas, then collected samples of the nanobodies created in response.

The scientists then took the nanobodies’ genetic information and coded it into bacteria, which reproduced the nanobodies in quantity.

After mice with symptoms of arthritis and gout were treated with the nanobodies, their symptoms largely eased. 

Tests on human cell cultures were positive as well.

More studies are planned.

TRENDPOST: Human trials of the treatment likely will be completed by the end of this decade, making the technique ready for clinical use in the 2030s.

Eventually, chronic health conditions will yield to treatments taken from nature, not from drug factories.