Maladie de Crohn: une percée israélienne

Qu'il est difficile de boycotter Israël...

La découverte de chercheurs israéliens de l'institut Weizmann devrait permettre de développer un médicament contre la maladie de Crohn, une maladie inflammatoire chronique intestinale (MICI). Ils ont développé un anticorps contre les atomes de zinc indispensables à l'activité des enzymes à l'origine des principaux dégâts dans le tube digestif occasionnés par la maladie. Dans un article dans le Nature Medicine, ils expliquent que cette méthode peut être appliquée à d'autres maladies, dont certaines tumeurs cancéreuses. (Guysen)

Source: Shalom Life (Weizmann Institute Scientists Make Headway in Cure for Crohn’s Experiments on Mice Lead to Optimism, Daniel Horowitz)

In diseases such as Crohn's and rheumatoid arthritis, the immune system mistakenly attacks the body's tissues. But today, thanks to a group of Weizmann Institute scientists, the immune system is learning that “turnabout is fair play”. The Weizmann Institute of Science, located in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world’s leading multidisciplinary research institutions. The scientists at the Weizman have managed to trick the immune systems of mice into targeting one of the body's players in the autoimmune process, an enzyme known as MMP9. 

Prof. Irit Sagi of the Biological Regulation Department, along with her research group, have spent years looking for ways to block members of the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) enzyme family. But, when
these proteins, which expedite wound-healing and offer other benefits, get out of control, they can actually help autoimmune disease and cancer metastasis. Blocking these proteins might lead to effective treatments for a number of diseases. Originally, Sagi and others had designed synthetic drug molecules to directly target MMPs. But these drugs had extremely severe side effects. Dr. Netta Sela-Passwell began working on an alternative approach in Sagi's lab, when they decided that, rather than attempting to design a synthetic molecule to directly attack MMPs, they would try to trick the immune system into creating natural antibodies that would target them through immunization. [Suite]