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Queensland rheumatoid arthritis research offers hope for sufferers
11-Jul-2007
Research into a new therapy that could prove effective in treating
rheumatoid arthritis is to get major Queensland Government funding.
Queensland Minister for State Development John Mickel said Dr
Christelle Capini from the University of Queensland’s Diamantina
Institute for Cancer, Immunology and Metabolic Medicine had received a
$150,000 Smart State Fellowship for her work on treating the
debilitating disease. (PressZoom) - Research into a new therapy that
could prove effective in treating rheumatoid arthritis is to get major
Queensland Government funding.
Queensland Minister for State Development John Mickel said Dr
Christelle Capini from the University of Queensland’s Diamantina
Institute for Cancer, Immunology and Metabolic Medicine had received a
$150,000 Smart State Fellowship for her work on treating the
debilitating disease.
‘Rheumatoid arthritis affects about half a million Australians and is
one of the most common causes of chronic disability. The disease
reduces survival by an average of 10 years and costs $93,000 per
patient in direct medical costs,” Mr Mickel said.
Rheumatoid arthritis affects the joints, particularly hands, feet and
knees and although the causes are not fully understood, it seems that
the body’s own immune system is responsible – it attacks its own
molecules, causing inflammation, then disease.
“While current therapies are often effective in reducing symptoms and
disability, they do carry the risk of side-effect, especially for
patients with diabetes and liver disease,” Mr Mickel said.
He said researchers at the Diamantina Institute had found that a
vaccine consisting of dendritic cells, grown in the laboratory from the
blood of a patient to be immunised, was expected to be very successful
in treating the disease, with a good tolerance level by patients and
less toxicity.
Dendritic cells are immune cells and scientists can manipulate these cells to activate a specific immune response in a host.
Dr Capini said in spite of the potential of such therapy, there were
obstacles to the successful commercial development of cell therapy for
widespread use in patients, including issues of product quality control
and cost.
“So at the Diamantina Institute, our team has pioneered an alternative
therapy. We’ve been working on a new cell free therapy, using
liposomes, or lipid vesticules, to carry antigens and specific
inhibitors, or basically a message, to the patient’s own dendritic
cells to develop the appropriate response to the disease,” Dr Capini
said.
“Basically, we’ll target the patient’s own auto-immune system to kick in and treat the disease,” she said.
She said if this proved effective, it opened the way
for the development of a drug that could have widespread use in
patients and could be commercially produced in large quantities.
Dr Capini will use her Smart State Fellowship to
continue and confirm the effectiveness of the liposome technology in
animal models, allowing the team to move forward into human clinical
trials as a next step at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.
“The results from our pre-clinical tests are very
exciting. This method of targeting cells as dendritic cells to ingest
liposomes after injection is novel in its approach to preventing
Rheumatoid Arthritis. We have already got a significant
antigen-specific decrease of the arthritis in the animal model tested,”
she said.
Mr Mickel said the technology not only had the
potential to be an effective treatment for Rheumatoid Arthritis, but it
could also be used to treat a number of auto-immune diseases, including
lupus, Type 1 juvenile diabetes, scleroderma, Addison disease,
pernicious anemia, and pulmonary fibrosis.
“Auto-immune diseases affect about one in 20
Australians, resulting in decreased quality of life, depression,
anxiety, heart disease and reduced life-span, high health care costs
and substantial loss of productivity.
“If Dr Capini’s research comes up trumps here, this
will be a major breakthrough for people suffering from these terrible
diseases,” Mr Mickel said.
The Smart State Fellowships are part of the Queensland
Government’s $200 million Smart State Innovation Funding Program, which
aims to build world-class research facilities, attract top-quality
scientists to Queensland and stimulate cutting-edge research projects.
Round Two of the Smart State Innovation Funds set out
about $18.5 million in assistance, including project funding, research
fellowships and university internships
Mr Mickel is hosting a special reception at 3pm today
for the latest recipients of the Smart State Fellowship and Queensland
Clinical Research Fellowship programs at the Queensland Room, the
Executive Building, 100 George Street, Brisbane.
“The Queensland Government has invested more than $3
billion in innovation, science and research since 1998. I think this
demonstrates our deep and ongoing commitment to maintaining
Queensland’s reputation as the Smart State,” Mr Mickel said.
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