Discovery Improves Our Understanding of Early Onset Inflammatory Disease

Medical researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA) recently made an incredible discovery which has helped to advance our understanding of inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. They discovered what can be described as a “constant cloud,” which is made up of potent inflammatory molecules, that is surrounding the cells responsible for conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and atherosclerosis (the thickening of the arteries).

These intriguing findings were published by the Journal of Cell Science, and they are available online. Scientists are very excited, as this discovery should lead to new effective treatments for rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic inflammatory diseases. There is an ever increasing need for more effective treatments, as cardiovascular disease caused by the thickening of the arteries is responsible for the deaths of some 17 million people around the world annually. Over 2 million Americans are affected by rheumatoid arthritis.

The research team at UEA was studying a specific type of white blood cell called monocytes. These monocytes play a crucial role in the human immune system, and they are responsible for protecting our bodies from getting any infections.

However, these monocytes also have the ability to invade tissue, which is often the catalyst for the early stages of common inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. During this clinical study, the UEA researchers were the first to realize that the monocytes were actually surrounded by this constant cloud of molecules.

Upon further inspection, they found that this cloud was made up of quite potent inflammatory molecules known as adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. Incredibly, these ATP molecules were being propelled through the cell wall by the lysosomes. This was quite an unexpected discovery, as the lysosomes (sub-cellular sections located in blood cells) were previously perceived to only be responsible for breaking down cell waste.

If one thing can be said of this new discovery, it certainly has been able to shed some light on the beginning stages of inflammatory disease development. According to the study’s lead author, Dr. Samuel Fountain of UEA’s School of Biological Sciences, this discovery will provide a firm basis to expand our knowledge of diseases like arthritis and atherosclerosis.

For one thing, scientists and researchers now realize that there is a lot more to the lysosomes than they previously thought. They play a highly influential and crucial role in determining the function of inflammatory cells. Surely, we will be seeing some new targets for inflammatory drugs being pursued in clinical trials over the next several years. Hopefully, this pivotal development will lead to some incredible new treatments for rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases.

Dr. Fountain has stated that the next big breakthrough would be learning how to control the lysosomes’ release of ATP in the monocytes and other white blood cells. This will probably require several years of extensive research, but it should also help us understand the ways inflammation can be affected in patients who have an inherited disease which involves the lysosomes. So far, Dr. Fountain has received 0.9 million pounds (approximately $1,430,613 dollars) from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) in order to study how cells can use the inflammatory molecule, ATP, as a trigger.